The maneuverability of small-scale aircraft and the unsteady loading of their wings is related to the development of vortical structures along the wing surface. A long-standing collaboration between Lehigh University and the Air Force Research Laboratory has led to many advances. At Lehigh, laser diagnostics and advanced image processing techniques are employed in the laboratories, and at AFRL, intensive, high-fidelity computations are performed.
Below: The team in the Fluid Mechanics Laboratories in the Department of Mechanical Engineering & Mechanics at Lehigh uses laser diagnostic experiments and advanced image processing techniques to measure the vortex structure on a pitching wing.
This research was led by Prof. Donald Rockwell and supported by the Air Force Office of Scientific Research with complementary support from the Defense University Research Instrumentation Program, Office of Naval Research, and National Science Foundation. Key external partners included Dr. Miguel Visbal and Dr. Daniel Garmann at the Air Force Research Laboratory.
Read more about this research in Journal of Fluid Mechanics, including work on flows on wings arising from pitch-up motion and trailing vortices from perturbed wings and oscillating wings.