Title: Vortex shedding from a ground tracking radar antenna and 3D tip flow characteristics

Authors: Cengiz Camci; Baris Gumusel

Addresses: Turbomachinery Aero-Heat Transfer Laboratory, The Pennsylvania State University, 223 Hammond Building, University Park, PA 16802, USA ' Turbomachinery Aero-Heat Transfer Laboratory, The Pennsylvania State University, 223 Hammond Building, University Park, PA 16802, USA

Abstract: High-speed ground tracking radar systems rotating at about 60 rpm are currently being implemented as modern air traffic control systems in airports. The flow induced vibration and noise generation of the newly developed radar antennas are the two serious problems that jeopardise the successful deployment of the new ground-based aircraft tracking systems. This paper deals with the viscous flow details of the highly three-dimensional antenna tip section and the vortex shedding characteristics at Re = 426,000. The current analysis uses a 3D computational approach for the computation of viscous flow details around a highly 3D tip geometry. A 2D unsteady computation of the vortex shedding phenomena is also presented. This paper is a continuation of the computational study dealing with the determination of aerodynamic drag coefficients on advanced surface detection equipment (ASDE-X) antenna previously presented in Gumusel and Camci (2010).

Keywords: CFD; vortex shedding; ASDE-X antenna; tip flow; unsteady flow visualisation; ground tracking radar antenna; computational fluid dynamics; air traffic control; airports; flow induced vibration; noise generation; aircraft tracking systems; viscous flow; aerodynamic drag coefficients.

DOI: 10.1504/PCFD.2013.055055

Progress in Computational Fluid Dynamics, An International Journal, 2013 Vol.13 No.5, pp.263 - 269

Published online: 31 Oct 2013 *

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