22nd Congress of International Council of the Aeronautical Sciences, Harrogate, UK, 28 August - 1st September, 2000
Paper ICAS 2000-6.5.3

WAKE VORTEX SIMULATIONS USING A PARALLEL HIGH-ORDER ACCURATE NAVIER-STOKES SOLVER

R. Steijl , H. W. M. Hoeijmakers
Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Twente, the Netherlands

Keywords: wake vortices, high-order accurate discretization, parallel computing

A well-known problem in the operation of commercial jet transports is the so-called ’wake vortex hazard’. This problem originates from the compact, strong vortices emanating from the wing tips which persist without much decay in their strength. The velocity field induced by these tip vortices forms a threat to following aircraft. Vortex wakes generally develop 3D instabilities of which the long-wavelength, or Crow [2], instability can often be observed as sinusoidal perturbations in aircraft contrails. The present paper describes a high-resolution algorithm for solving the Navier-Stokes equations developed to numerically simulate these wake-vortex flows. Results obtained for an evolving long-wavelength instability in a vortex pair are discussed.

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