Wake transitions and laminar separation

bubble in the flow past an Eppler 61 airfoil

Cite as: Phys. Fluids 31, 114102 (2019); https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5113823
Submitted: 18 June 2019 . Accepted: 16 October 2019 . Published Online: 05 November 2019

Jawahar Sivabharathy Samuthira Pandi , and Sanjay Mittal

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Phys. Fluids 31, 114102 (2019); https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5113823 31, 114102

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Wake transitions and laminar separation bubble

in the flow past an Eppler 61 airfoil
Cite as: Phys. Fluids 31, 114102 (2019); doi: 10.1063/1.5113823
Submitted: 18 June 2019 • Accepted: 16 October 2019 •
Published Online: 5 November 2019

Jawahar Sivabharathy Samuthira Pandi and Sanjay Mittala)

AFFILIATIONS
Department of Aerospace Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur, Kanpur, UP 208016, India

a)
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed: smittal@iitk.ac.in

ABSTRACT
The flow past an Eppler 61 airfoil at 10○ angle to the free-stream is investigated numerically for 100 ≤ Re ≤ 87 000. Vortex shedding is observed
beyond Re ∼ 600 and three-dimensionality sets in at Re ∼ 1280.9 via the mode C instability and hairpin vortex structures that grow with an
increase in Re. At larger Re, the shear layer vortices, arising from the instability of the separated shear layer, interact with the flow close to the
airfoil and cause it to reattach. A Laminar Separation Bubble (LSB) forms at Re ∼ 20 000 and beyond. The airfoil experiences a very significant
increase in the lift and a decrease in the drag at the formation of LSB. Although the flow is three-dimensional, the primary mechanism of the
formation of LSB appears to be two-dimensional. The length of the LSB decreases with an increase in Re. The variation of the shear layer and
primary wake frequency, with Re, is studied. Both follow the power law. However, the variation before and after the formation of LSB is quite
different. Unlike the primary wake frequency, the shear layer frequency suffers a jump at the formation of LSB. Wake formation length (Lf ),
estimated via the spatial distribution of Reynolds stress, exhibits spanwise periodicity at the onset of three-dimensionality.
Published under license by AIP Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5113823., s

I. INTRODUCTION airfoil to a longer extent. This leads to a reduction in pressure drag

With the advent of Micro-Air-Vehicles (MAVs), there is
renewed interest in the low Re (<5 × 105 ) flow past airfoils.1 In gen-
eral, the maximum lift to drag ratio of airfoils increases with Re and
improves considerably only beyond Re ∼ 1 × 105 .2 The range of Re
for a typical flow past an MAV is 104 –105 . Although there have
been numerous efforts3–13 to investigate the flow in this range of
Reynolds numbers, several physical aspects related to the transition
of wake and boundary layer separation are not yet adequately under-
stood. The wake of a nominally two-dimensional airfoil becomes
unstable to three-dimensional instabilities at a relatively low Re.8,9
In certain cases, at high Re, the boundary layer undergoes laminar
separation and a subsequent turbulent reattachment on the suction
surface forming a laminar separation bubble (LSB).10–13 The LSB
significantly affects the aerodynamic forces acting on the airfoil.10
Airfoils that are designed for relatively high Re flows may lead to
early flow separation at low Re, thereby resulting in less than desir-
able performance for MAV applications at low Re.45,49 The Eppler 61
airfoil is especially designed for low Re flows. The overall reduction
in drag is achieved via an early transition of the boundary layer to a
turbulent state so that the flow remains attached to the surface of the
even though the skin friction drag increases.45 In the present work,
the transition of the flow including the evolution of the laminar sep-
aration bubble, for an Eppler 61 airfoil placed at an angle 10○ to the
uniform flow, is investigated.
Compared to the transition of the flow past an airfoil, the transi-
tion of flow past bluff bodies is relatively well understood. The wake
of a circular cylinder undergoes transition to three-dimensionality
via three distinct instabilities: modes A, B (Refs. 14, 46, and 15–17),
and C (Refs. 18, 19, and 42). Table I lists some of the characteristics
of these modes. The mode A instability marks the onset of natural
transition of the flow to three-dimensionality at Re ∼ 200. It is asso-
ciated with spatially periodic streamwise flow structures across the
wake with a spanwise wavelength of approximately 4D, where D is
the diameter of the cylinder. Mode-A instabilities, for the cylinder,
are contaminated with vortex dislocations that cause disruption in
the periodicity of flow structures.14,17 For Re > 270, approximately,
the flow is marked by a gradual shift of energy from the mode A to
mode B instability. The mode B instability is associated with flow
structures with a spanwise wavelength of 0.8–1.0D. Unlike the mode
A, the transition to mode B instability is not hysteretic. One of
the differences between modes A and B is the arrangement of the

Phys. Fluids 31, 114102 (2019); doi: 10.1063/1.5113823 31, 114102-1

Published under license by AIP Publishing
 Physics of Fluids
TABLE I. Flow past a circular cylinder and an airfoil: the characteristics of modes A, B, and C reported by various researchers. λz is the spanwise wavelength; in the acronym
RT symmetry, R denotes reflection about the wake axis and T denotes translation in time. d is the characteristic length: diameter for the cylinder and c sin α9 for the airfoil. Red ,
for the airfoil, is based on d. The findings of Carmo et al.19 are for a single cylinder for modes A and B, while they are for two cylinders in the staggered arrangement for mode C.
Circular cylinder
Mode A B
18 19 14 18 14
Onset Re 180, 190, 200 230, 260, 260.5
Red
λz /d 3.97,19 4.0,18 3.0–4.014 0.825,19 1.014,18
Arrangement of
Staggered14 In-line14
streamwise vortices
RT symmetry Odd19,42 Even19,42
streamwise vortices from one braid to the other.14 While they are of
alternate sign in mode A, they are of the same sign in mode B.
Beyond Re = 170, mode C instability is observed in the circular
cylinder when the flow is excited via a control wire placed parallel to
the axis of the cylinder in the wake.18 The mode C instability was also
seen in numerical simulations18 when zero velocity condition was
implemented on grid lines at the same locations as in experiments.
The spanwise wavelength of the mode C instability is 2.0D.18,42 It has
also been observed for flow past two cylinders in staggered arrange-
ment, with a spanwise wavelength of 1.57D.19 The mode C instability
is also different from modes A and B in the sense that it exhibits
period-doubling;19,42 the spatial arrangement of secondary stream-
wise vortices is the same at time t and t + 2T, where T is the time
period of vortex shedding.42 The time evolution of streamwise vor-
ticity in the wake at cross flow axis for modes A and B exhibit odd-RT
and even-RT symmetry, whereas for mode C it exhibits neither odd-
RT nor even-RT symmetry.19,42 R denotes reflection about the wake
axis, and T denotes translation in time.
A stability analysis was carried out by Balachandar et al.40
for flow past a square cylinder for 161 ≤ Re ≤ 225 (Re based on
the edge length, D). The onset of modes A and B was reported at
Re = 175 and 205, respectively. In addition, mode S was observed at
Re = 225. The spanwise wavelength (λz ) for the modes A, B, and S
is 5.22D, 1.2D, and 2.8D. The flow structure of mode S is similar to
mode C. However, unlike mode C, it appears naturally without any
forcing.
In contrast to the transition of flow past a bluff body, Jones
et al.11 observed, via a computational study, that the transition of
the flow past a NACA 0012 airfoil at Re = 50 000 and 5○ angle
of attack to the freestream, the three-dimensionality occurs via a
mode-B like instability. The spanwise wavelength of this instabil-
ity is similar to mode B instability observed in a circular cylinder.
The transition was induced by adding three-dimensional distur-
bances via volume forcing. The forcing was then removed and flow
statistics collected. It was found that the two-dimensional vortex
shedding is absolutely unstable to three-dimensional flow perturba-
tions. Hoarau et al.9 investigated the three-dimensional transition of
incompressible flow on the NACA 0012 airfoil placed at α = 20○ for
Phys. Fluids 31, 114102 (2019); doi: 10.1063/1.5113823
Published under license by AIP Publishing
ARTICLE scitation.org/journal/phf
Airfoil
NACA 0012
○
α = 12.5 α = 15○
C C C
19 18 19 42 43
170, 178, 165–180 1082 73043
234.243 188.943
1.57,19 2.018,42 1.38–1.4843 1.35–1.6243
... ... ...
Neither odd nor even 19,42
Neither odd nor even 43
Neither odd nor even43
Re = 800 and 1200. Re is based on the chord length of the airfoil. They
proposed that for the airfoil, the characteristic dimension transverse
to the freestream is given by d = c sin α, where c is the chord of the
airfoil and α is the angle of attack. Similarly, Red = Re sin α is the
equivalent bluff body Reynolds number for the airfoil. The span-
wise wavelength (λz ) of the instability is 0.64d, approximately at
Red = 273 (Re = 800), and it is similar to the mode B observed for
a cylinder.
Bourguet et al.8 investigated the transition of compressible flow
and, unlike the findings of Hoarau et al. for incompressible flow,
observed irregular waves along the span of the NACA 0012 airfoil
α = 20○ and Re = 800. λz was found to vary between 0.74 and 0.83c
(2.16–2.42d) and is comparable to that for mode C for a circu-
lar cylinder. For a NACA 0015 airfoil, via stability analysis, Deng
et al.43 found that the transition of the wake takes place via mode C
instability at α = 12.5○ for Re = 1082 and at α = 15○ for Re = 730,
with λz = 0.3c (1.38d) and 0.42c (1.62d), respectively. The character-
istics of mode C instability reported by Deng et al.43 are summarized
in Table I. At relatively larger α (=17.5○ and 20○ ), several modes
were identified in addition to mode C instability. For example, at
α = 20○ and Re = 740, two modes are found with λz = 1.02d and
2.31d.
The aerodynamics of the airfoils at low Reynolds numbers is
significantly affected by the presence of a laminar separation bubble.
Carmichael7 presented flows past airfoils for Re ranging from 1000
to 200 000, with special reference to the laminar separation bubble.
It is reported that for Re, based on the chord of the airfoil, between
10 000 and 30 000, the boundary layer is completely laminar. There-
fore, once it separates, it does not reattach. In the range 30 000 ≤ Re
≤ 70 000, the laminar boundary layer separates and the free shear
layer can transition to a turbulent state causing the flow to reat-
tach. Thick airfoils can exhibit a significant amount of hysteresis
in this regime. Most airfoils show laminar separation bubbles for
Re ∼ 50 000. There have been several efforts in the past to under-
stand the various physical phenomena associated with the laminar
separation bubble. The separated shear layer reattaches to the body,
as the flow becomes turbulent due to the merging of the shear layer
vortices,5,6 forming a bubble on the suction surface. As a result, a
31, 114102-2
 Physics of Fluids
plateau appears in the pressure distribution curve.4 The length of
the plateau approximately represents the length of the bubble. Based
on the length, Gaster4 classified the bubbles as short and long. He
showed that at high Reynolds numbers, the bubble is extremely
small, of the order of a percent of the chord. With an increase in
incidence of the airfoil or a reduction in flow speed, the short bub-
ble may either burst to form a long bubble or the flow may fail to
reattach.4 Either way it leads to an increase in drag and reduction in
lift. Marxen and Rist20 and Marxen and Henningson,21 via experi-
ments on a flat-plate, found that the cause of the bursting of bubble
is insufficient turbulence in the shear layer for the flow to reattach
to the body up to some far aft location. Subsequently, the separation
bubble exhibits the characteristics of a long bubble. In this paper,
we attempt to track the formation of the laminar separation bub-
ble, its evolution with Re, and its effect on the mean aerodynamic
coefficients for the Eppler 61 airfoil.
The instability of the shear layer and the associated shear layer
vortices are central to the formation of the laminar separation bub-
ble. The shear layer instability in the context of bluff body flows has
been studied quite extensively.22–26 Prasad and Williamson22 pro-
posed that, for the flow past a circular cylinder, the variation of the
normalized shear layer frequency (F SL /F K ) is proportional to Re0.67
for Re ≤ 5 × 104 . F SL and F K denote the frequencies associated with
the shear layer vortices and primary vortex shedding, respectively.
They utilized data from several studies and sought the best fit over
the entire regime to propose the power law. Thompson and Houri-
gan23 proposed a different power law using very similar data. They
suggested that the variation is closer to Re0.5 if one carries out a
piecewise fit. They found that the shear layer frequency varies as
Re0.57 for Re ≤ 1 × 104 . At higher Re, the variation is proportional
to Re0.52 . Singh and Mittal24 and Behara and Mittal,28 using the data
from their numerical simulations, also showed that the shear layer
frequency ratio exhibits a power law variation with Re. Compared
to the flow past a cylinder, the situation is quite different for an
airfoil.
Yarusevych et al.6 found that the laminar separation bubble
greatly affects the variation of the normalized shear layer frequency
with Re. They carried out a study for the flow past a NACA 0025
airfoil for 0.55 × 105 ≤ Re ≤ 2.10 × 105 . It was demonstrated that
the frequency ratio, F SL /F K , increases with an increase in Re prior to
the formation of the separation bubble. However, once the bubble
is formed on the suction surface, the frequency ratio decreases with
further increase in Re. The difference in the two trends is attributed
to the difference in the rates of variation of the primary shedding
frequency with Re in the two regimes.5,6 In the present effort, we
investigate the variation of F SL /F K with Re for the flow past an Eppler
61 airfoil. The Re regimes pre- and postformation of the laminar
separation bubble are studied. The results are compared to earlier
results for the flow past a NACA 0012 airfoil reported by Huang and
Lin.35
Two important characteristics of the wake of a body are the
wake formation length (Lf ) and wake width (Lw ). Lf is the loca-
tion of the maximum fluctuation of velocity in the wake, while Lw
is the transverse separation in the two local peaks of the velocity
fluctuation. Mahbub Alam et al.44 presented the variation of Lf and
Lw for a wing with the NACA 0012 section for 0○ ≤ α ≤ 90○ and
5300 ≤ Re ≤ 51 000. The estimates were based on measurements via
Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV) at the midspan. It was found that
Phys. Fluids 31, 114102 (2019); doi: 10.1063/1.5113823
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ARTICLE scitation.org/journal/phf
the wake width increases with an increase in α and decreases with
increasing Re. We study the variation of wake formation length with
Re for an Eppler 61 airfoil at α = 10○ . Computation of the Reynolds
stress at each span location, using the sectional data, enables us to
study the variation of these length scales across the span.
All the computations in the present work are for an Eppler 61
airfoil placed at α = 10○ with respect to the incoming uniform flow.
The angle of attack is well below the stall angle while it is still large
enough to induce flow instabilities that offer the possibility of com-
parison with those associated with bluff-body flows. The Reynolds
number is varied in the range 100 ≤ Re ≤ 87 000. In addition to three-
dimensional computations, simulations are also carried out in two
dimensions. This provides an opportunity to compare the results
from 2D and 3D computations that help us to understand the role of
three-dimensionality on the flow and aerodynamic coefficients. The
motivation for this comparison comes from an interesting obser-
vation from one of our earlier studies10 where it was found that
computations carried out in 2D fail to predict the phenomenon of
stall for the Re = 46 000 flow past an Eppler 61 airfoil. On the other
hand, results from 3D computations are in reasonable agreement
with laboratory measurements.
II. GOVERNING EQUATIONS, SOLUTION METHOD,
AND PROBLEM SETUP
A. The Navier-Stokes equations
Assume that Ω ⊂ IRnsd and (0, T) are the spatial and tempo-
ral domains, respectively, where nsd is the number of space dimen-
sions. Let Γ represent the boundary of Ω, while x and t denote the
spatial and temporal coordinates, respectively. The Navier-Stokes
equations governing incompressible fluid flow are
∂u
ρ( + u ⋅ ∇u − f) − ∇ ⋅ σ = 0 on Ω × (0, T), (1)
∂t
∇⋅u=0 on Ω × (0, T). (2)
Here, ρ, u, f, and σ are the density, velocity, body force, and stress
tensor, respectively. The stress tensor consists of its isotropic and
deviatoric parts,
1
σ = −pI + T, T = 2 με(u), ε(u) = ((∇u) + (∇u)T ), (3)
2
where p, I, and μ are the pressure, identity tensor, and dynamic
viscosity, respectively. The Dirichlet and Neumann-type boundary
conditions are employed and represented as
u = g on Γg , n ⋅ σ = h on Γh , (4)
where g and h are fixed values. Γg is the subset of the total boundary
Γ on which the Dirichlet boundary conditions are specified, while
Γh is the part of the boundary, where the Neumann-type boundary
condition is set. Here, n is the unit vector normal to the boundary.
The initial condition on the velocity is provided on Ω at t = 0,
u(x, 0) = u0 on Ω, (5)
where u0 is divergence free.
Pressure and viscous stresses around the surface of the airfoil
are integrated for calculating the aerodynamic coefficient, Cx . Its
31, 114102-3
 Physics of Fluids
three components are the lift coefficient (CL ) that is the normal to
the flow direction, the drag coefficient (CD ) along the flow direction,
and the side force coefficient (CS ) along the spanwise direction. Cx is
given as
1
Cx = 1 2 ∫ σ n̂dΓ,
2
ρU∞ cLz Γafl
where n̂ is the unit vector that is normal to the airfoil boundary, Γafl ,
c is the chord, and Lz is the spanwise length of the airfoil.
B. Solution method
A stabilized finite element method implemented on a dis-
tributed memory parallel computing machine is utilized to solve
the flow equations.24,25,34 The stabilized method is based on
the SUPG29 (Streamline-Upwind/Petrov-Galerkin) and PSPG29
(Pressure-Stabilizing/Petrov-Galerkin) stabilization techniques. The
linear algebraic equation system resulting from the finite element
discretization of the governing equations is solved iteratively by
employing the Generalized Minimal Residual (GMRES) procedure30
in conjunction with diagonal preconditioners.
Large Eddy Simulation (LES) is often utilized to compute flows
at large Re, wherein the unresolved flow structures are modeled
using a subgrid scale model. One of the popular models is the
Smagorinsky model31 where the molecular viscosity is supplemented
with an eddy viscosity. In the present work, no explicit turbulence
model is used to represent the small scale flow structures. In these
“model free” computations, the numerical viscosity introduced by
the stabilization terms drains out the energy that the eddy viscos-
ity is expected to do for the unresolved small scales. Chopra and
Mittal39 showed that, for flow past a cylinder undergoing bound-
ary layer transition, model-free computations capture most of the
flow features that are observed in measurements from experiments.
Singh and Mittal24 and Akin et al.32 showed that in flow past a cylin-
der in two dimensions, with linear elements, the numerical diffusion
due to the stabilization is much higher than the eddy viscosity gen-
erated by the Smagorinsky model, except in regions very close to
the cylinder where it gives unrealistically large values. The same is
found to be true in three dimensions as well. Our experience shows
that this high unphysical value of eddy viscosity interferes with the
transition of the flow including the dynamics of the LSB. The use
of a wall function is expected to alleviate some of these problems.
Another possibility is to use alternate models that account for wall
effects.33,48
Flow at Re = 46 000 is considered to study the difference
between the results from a model free simulation and LES. The LES
utilizes the σ-model proposed by Nicoud et al.33,48 In this model,
the turbulent eddy viscosity is defined as μt = (Cσ Δ)2 Dσ , where
Cσ = 1.35 is the model constant, Δ is the element length scale, and
σ3 (σ1 − σ2 )(σ2 − σ3 ) 2
Dσ = . σ 1 , σ 2 , and σ 3 are the singular values
σ1
of the velocity gradient tensor.33,48 Table II lists the time-averaged
lift and drag coefficients and their rms values obtained from the
model free simulation and LES with the σ-model for closure. The
y+ , corresponding to the height of the element lying on the sur-
face of the airfoil in terms of the inner variables, is less than 1. The
results from the two sets of simulations are in excellent agreement.
Phys. Fluids 31, 114102 (2019); doi: 10.1063/1.5113823
Published under license by AIP Publishing
ARTICLE scitation.org/journal/phf
TABLE II. 3D flow past an Eppler 61 airfoil for Re = 46 000 and α = 10○ : time-
averaged lift and drag coefficients and the rms values obtained from model free
simulation and LES with the σ-model for closure.
Simulation CL CD CLrms CDrms
(6) Model free 1.5311 0.0686 0.0037 0.000 82
LES 1.5316 0.0687 0.0037 0.000 97
The time- and span-averaged distribution of pressure- and skin-
friction coefficients on the surface of the airfoil, along with velocity
profiles at certain chordwise locations, is presented in Fig. 1. The
results from the model free simulation and LES are virtually indis-
tinguishable. In view of this observation, all the results presented in
this study are with model free simulations, i.e., without any explicit
turbulence model.
C. The problem setup
An Eppler 61 airfoil, of unit chord, is placed in a hexahedral
domain. Figure 2 shows the schematic of the computational domain.
The location of the various boundaries along with the boundary con-
ditions is also shown in Fig. 2. A free-stream value is assigned to
the velocity at the upstream boundary, ABCD. At the downstream
boundary, EFGH, a Neumann-type boundary condition for the
velocity is specified, which corresponds to zero stress vector. On the
lateral walls, symmetry boundary conditions are employed, i.e.,
the component of velocity normal to and the component of stress
vector along the boundary are prescribed a zero value. The airfoil
occupies the entire span, Lz , of the computational domain. No slip
condition for the velocity is specified on the surface of the airfoil.
As shown in Fig. 2, the upstream and downstream boundaries are
located at a distance Lu and Ld , respectively, from the leading edge
of the airfoil. Lh is the separation between the lateral boundaries. The
Reynolds number is based on the chord of the airfoil. The adequacy
of the streamwise and lateral extent of the computational domain to
represent unbounded flow is investigated. Two domains, D1 and D2,
are utilized to study this. The domain D2 is, approximately, twice the
size of D1 in each direction. For domain D1, the lengths Lu , Ld , and
Lh are 5c, 11c, and 10c, respectively. These lengths, for domain D2,
are 10c, 21c, and 20c, respectively. The spatial resolution is approxi-
mately the same for both the domains. At Re = 46 000 and α = 10○ ,
the difference in time-averaged coefficients of lift and drag for the
two domains is 0.03% and 2%, respectively, with respect to the val-
ues for domain D1. Since the results from the two domains are quite
close, the domain D1 is used for all further computations presented
in this article.
The adequacy of the spatial resolution of the finite element
domain is tested via a mesh convergence study described in Subsec-
tion III and in more detail in Appendix A. Also tested is the effect of
Lz , the spanwise extend of the domain. Computations at Re = 1500
and 46 000 are carried out for various Lz . It is found that the aerody-
namic coefficients show no significant variation with Lz for Lz ⪆ 1c.
This is described in detail in Appendix B. All the 3D computations
in this study are carried out with Lz = 2c.
The computations have been carried out on a Linux-cluster
using MPI libraries for interprocessor communication. Each
31, 114102-4
 Physics of Fluids
FIG. 1. 3D flow past an Eppler 61 airfoil at Re = 46 000 and α = 10○ : comparison of time- and span-averaged (a) pressure distribution, (b) skin-friction coefficient, and (c)
velocity profiles at various chordwise locations on the surface of the airfoil for model free simulation and LES with the σ- model for closure.
compute node consists of two Intel Xeon processors with a clock
speed of 2.5 GHz. The nodes are interconnected via an Infini-
Band network with a rated speed of 56 Gbps. The peak computing
performance of the cluster is 359.6 TF. Details of the parallel
FIG. 2. Flow past an Eppler 61 airfoil: problem setup and boundary conditions.
Phys. Fluids 31, 114102 (2019); doi: 10.1063/1.5113823
Published under license by AIP Publishing
ARTICLE scitation.org/journal/phf
implementation of the finite element formulation and its speed-up
study can be found in our earlier work.34
III. THE FINITE ELEMENT MESH
The finite element mesh for the three-dimensional computa-
tions is constructed by stacking, along the span, several copies of
the two-dimensional mesh around an airfoil. The two-dimensional
mesh consists of a structured part close to the airfoil and an unstruc-
tured part, created via Delaunay’s triangulation, in the rest of the
domain. The structured mesh enables good resolution of the bound-
ary layer. The unstructured mesh allows one to generate grids
for complex geometries while still minimizing the number of grid
points.
To adequately capture the flow physics for the range of Re
considered while still using reasonable computational resources,
the mesh utilized for Re > 4000 is different from that used for
Re ≤ 4000. A mesh convergence study is conducted to investigate
the adequacy of the spatial resolution in 2D and 3D. We con-
sider flow at two representative Re (=1500 and 46 000). The flow at
Re = 1500 is associated with a three-dimensional instability with
a fairly regular spanwise structure. On the other hand, the flow is
highly aperiodic along the span at Re = 46 000. In addition, a laminar
31, 114102-5
 Physics of Fluids
FIG. 3. Flow past an Eppler 61 airfoil at α = 10○ : the evolution of flow states with increasing Re. The onset of three-dimensionality and transition of the wake followed by the
formation of laminar separation bubble is highlighted.
separation bubble (LSB) exists on the upper surface of the
airfoil.
First, a mesh convergence study is carried out to resolve the 2D
flow. Five meshes with varying resolution are considered. A mesh
with 26 530 nodes and 52 806 elements is found to be adequate for
the Re = 1500 flow, while a mesh with 46 168 nodes and 92 031 ele-
ments is required to resolve the flow structures associated with the
Re = 46 000 flow. Next, a convergence study was undertaken to study
the spanwise resolution. Four values of N z , the number of elements
along the span, were considered (N z = 100, 200, 250, and 300). The
3D mesh is formed by stacking the respective converged 2D mesh
for the Re = 1500 and 46 000 flow. It is found that N z = 100 and
N z = 200 are enough to resolve the flow at the respective Re. The
details are presented in Appendix A.
IV. WAKE TRANSITION
A. Overview of the evolution of the flow with Re
Computations for the Eppler 61 airfoil have been carried out for
100 ≤ Re ≤ 87 000. The angle of attack is α = 10○ . Figure 3 depicts the
successive states of the flow with an increase in Re observed in the
present work. The flow is steady and two-dimensional for low Re.
Beyond Re ∼ 600, the primary instability of the wake leads to vor-
tex shedding. Three-dimensionality in the flow sets in at Re ∼ 1280.9
via the appearance of hairpin vortex structures and mode C instabil-
ity. The size of the hairpin vortices increases with an increase in Re.
Their spanwise distribution is regular up to a certain Re and become
irregular at Re = 1700 and beyond. The spanwise instability becomes
stronger with an increase in Re. At higher Re, the separated shear
layer becomes unstable and rolls into shear layer vortices. These
vortices enhance the mixing of the flow leading to the transition of
Phys. Fluids 31, 114102 (2019); doi: 10.1063/1.5113823
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the separated shear layer, turbulent reattachment of the boundary
layer, and the formation of a laminar separation bubble. With fur-
ther increase in Re, the separation bubble moves upstream and its
length decreases. Beyond a certain Re, the boundary layer achieves
a turbulent state right at the leading edge of the airfoil. The laminar
separation bubble ceases to exist in this state.
Figure 4 shows the variation of mean aerodynamic coefficients
with Re obtained with two- and three-dimensional simulations. Data
for at least 30 time units, for the fully developed unsteady flow, are
used to compute the time-average and the rms of the various quan-
tities presented in this work. Time histories of lift and drag coef-
ficients for the 3D computations, at certain representative Re, are
shown in Fig. 5. Most of the flow phenomena referred to in Fig. 3
are imprinted in the variations shown in Figs. 4 and 5. The drag and
lift are constant-in-time for Re ≤ 500. The Re = 600 flow is asso-
ciated with low amplitude unsteady oscillations. The transition of
the wake from a two- to three-dimensional state can be observed
from the divergence of the aerodynamic coefficients from 2D and
3D computations shown in the insets of Fig. 4. The critical Re for the
transition of flow from a two- to three-dimensional state is estimated
from the time histories of the spanwise component of velocity, w, in
the wake at x/c = 1.25, y/c = −0.05, and z/Lz = 0.75.
For each Re, a 3D calculation is initiated from the fully devel-
oped 2D unsteady solution. The three-dimensionality is allowed to
grow spontaneously from the base state. As an example, the time his-
tory of the spanwise component of velocity for Re = 1500 is shown
in Fig. 6(a). The growth rate (λr ) of w, when the disturbance is small
and the flow is still in the linear regime, is estimated from the slope
of the envelope of the curve for the time history. The method to
estimate λr for Re = 1500 is shown in Fig. 6(a). A similar analysis
is carried out at each Re. The variation of λr with Re is shown in
FIG. 4. Flow past an Eppler 61 airfoil at
α = 10○ : variation of time-averaged (a)
lift and (b) drag coefficients with Re. The
red triangle shows the critical Re for the
onset of three-dimensionality.
31, 114102-6
 Physics of Fluids
Fig. 6(b). The critical Re, corresponding to zero growth rate of w, is
estimated from this curve by extrapolating the growth rate to lower
Re. It is estimated to be ∼1280.9 and marked in Fig. 6(b). Based on
the length scale9 d = c sin α, the equivalent critical Re corresponds
to Red ∼ 222.42. The critical Re for transition of flow from steady to
unsteady and from the two- to three-dimensional state can also be
determined from linear stability analysis.47 This, however, has not
been undertaken in the present work.
The Strouhal number (St) corresponding to the vortex shed-
ding frequency is also investigated for 2D and 3D calculations. Its
variation with Red is shown in Fig. 7(a). The St is estimated from the
time history of the transverse component of velocity, v, recorded by
a probe located at x/c = 2.25 and y/c = 0.05. The length scale for both
St and Red is d = c sin α.9 In the 3D simulations, the probe is located
at midspan. St increases with Red for both 2D and 3D flows. How-
ever, beyond the onset of three-dimensionality, the 2D computations
overpredict St. A similar trend is observed in the variations in CL and
CD (Fig. 4). The time history of the v component of velocity, in 3D,
Phys. Fluids 31, 114102 (2019); doi: 10.1063/1.5113823
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FIG. 5. 3D flow past an Eppler 61 airfoil
at α = 10○ : time histories of (a) lift and
(b) drag coefficients for various Re.
shows an additional frequency corresponding to 12 St for 1300 ≤ Re
≤ 1850 (225.73 ≤ Red ≤ 321.23). The power spectrum for Re = 1850
that brings this out is shown in Fig. 7(b). This additional frequency,
as will be shown later in this paper, reflects the period-doubling19,42
nature of the three-dimensional instability.
Figure 8 shows the isosurfaces of the spanwise and streamwise
components of instantaneous vorticity field of the fully developed
unsteady flow at various Re. The Re = 1300 flow is associated with
extremely weak three-dimensionality [Fig. 8(a)]. The insets in Fig. 4
show that both the 2D and 3D computations predict virtually the
same values of CL and CD for Re ≤ 1280. The three-dimensionality
is weak at its onset and the spanwise undulation of the primary vor-
tices increases with an increase in Re as also the divergence between
the time-averaged coefficients obtained with 2D and 3D computa-
tions (see Fig. 4). This transition in the wake is also noted in the
loss of periodicity in the time histories of the aerodynamic coeffi-
cients, as shown in Fig. 5. With an increase in Re, the wake of the
airfoil is accompanied with small scale structures. At Re = 20 000
FIG. 6. 3D flow past an Eppler 61 air-
foil at α = 10○ : (a) time history of the
spanwise velocity component (w) for a
probe located at x/c = 1.25, y/c = −0.05,
and z/Lz = 0.75 for Re = 1500 flow and
(b) variation of growth rate (λr ) with Re.
The inset in (b) shows the critical Re,
determined by extrapolating the growth
rate.
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FIG. 7. Flow past an Eppler 61 airfoil at

α = 10○ : (a) variation of St with Red
(lower axis) and Re (upper axis) from
2D and 3D calculations and (b) power
spectrum for Re = 1850. St is obtained
from the time-history of the transverse
component of velocity at (x/c, y/c)
= (2.25, 0.05). For the 3D computations,
the probe is located at the midspan.

[Fig. 8(g)], these small scale flow structures are observed close to laminar separation bubble. The critical Re for the formation of the
the leading edge of the airfoil. The abrupt increase in the mean lift LSB is different for 2D and 3D simulations. It is Re ∼ 7000 for the
coefficient, and decrease in the drag coefficient (Fig. 4), corresponds 2D computations, while it is Re ∼ 20 000 for the 3D simulations.
to the reattachment of the boundary layer and the formation of the McArthur,36 in his experiments with the Eppler 387 airfoil, found an

FIG. 8. Flow past an Eppler 61 airfoil at α = 10○ : isosurfaces of spanwise vorticity (ωz ) and streamwise vorticity (ωx ) for the instantaneous flow when the lift coefficient
achieves its peak value. The (Re, ωz , ωx ) for various cases are (a) (1300, ±2, ±0.01), (b) (2000, ±2, ±2), (c) (5000, ±2, ±2), (d) (8000, ±2, ±2), (e) (10 000, ±2, ±2), (f)
(19 000, ±2, ±2), (g) (20 000, ±2, ±2), and (h) (87 000, ±2, ±2).

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 Physics of Fluids
abrupt increase in the lift coefficient beyond Re = 20 000. A narrow
region of hysteresis was also observed at the jump when the mea-
surements were carried out with increasing and decreasing angles of
attack, in increments of 0.1○ .
B. Mode C instability, its evolution, and variation
of spanwise wavelength with Re
We attempt to identify the mode via which the 3D instabil-
ity sets in. For the same, λz , RT symmetry (R denotes reflection
about the wake axis and T denotes translation in time), and the pres-
ence/absence of period doubling are studied for the Re = 1350 flow.
Some of these features that have been studied in the past for certain
other flows are listed in Table I. Figure 9 shows the instantaneous
vorticity for the Re = 1350 flow at three time instants corresponding
to t, t + T, and t + 2T, where T represents the time period of pri-
mary vortex shedding. We note that ωx (t) = −ωx (t + T) and ωx (t)
= ωx (t + 2T), i.e., the flow has a time period of 2T. Figure 9(d)
shows the space-time variation of streamwise vorticity in the wake at
x/c = 2.5 and midspan for few cycles of primary vortex shed-
ding. It is seen that the flow exhibits neither odd-RT nor even-
RT symmetry. The spanwise variation of ωx at three time instants
(t, t + T, and t + 2T) in the wake at x/c = 1.97 and y/c = 0.075 is shown
in Fig. 10(a). From these variations, the spanwise wavelength, λz , of
the three-dimensional instabilities in the flow is estimated to be λz /c
= 0.233 (λz /d = 1.34). On comparing the attributes of the 3D flow
instability for Re = 1350 with those reported by other researchers
for different flows (listed in Table I), we conclude that this flow is
associated with the mode C instability.
We now investigate the evolution of mode C instability with Re
by examining the spanwise variation of ωx shown in Fig. 10 for three
time instants at various Re. For Re ≤ 1600, the spanwise variation of
ωx at all these time instants is very regular and ωx (t) = −ωx (t + T)
= ωx (t + 2T). The spanwise regularity reduces with an increase in Re
FIG. 9. Flow past an Eppler 61 airfoil at Re = 1350 and α = 10○ : isosurfaces of streamwise component of vorticity (ωx = ±0.1) at (a) t, (b) t + T, and (c) t + 2T to illustrate the
mode C instability. The airfoil is also shown in the pictures. (d) Time evolution of streamwise vorticity along the y-axis at (x/c, z/Lz ) = (2.5, 0.5).
Phys. Fluids 31, 114102 (2019); doi: 10.1063/1.5113823
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for Re ≥ 1700. Furthermore, even though ωx (t) is identical to ωx (t
+ 2T), ωx (t + T) is no longer equal to −ωx (t).
The variation of the spanwise wavelength (λz /d) of the three-
dimensional instability with Red ,9 determined from the spanwise
variation of ωx shown in Fig. 10, is presented in Fig. 11. The Re
based on the chord of the Eppler 61 airfoil is also marked on the
top of the plot. λz /d from the present study is compared with earlier
results in Fig. 11. Also shown in Fig. 11 is λz /d for other airfoils9,43 as
well as λz /d for the wake of a circular cylinder,18 for mode C, at the
onset of transition. The numbers appear to compare well across dif-
ferent flows. λz /d, for the Eppler 61 airfoil, varies between 1.12 and
1.45d. For the dataset considered, the maximum value is attained for
Red = 316.9 (Re = 1825).
C. Hairpin vortex structure
The Q criterion defined by Hunt et al.41 is used to identify
the vortical structures in the flow. The Q isosurface for Re = 1400
and rendered with spanwise (ωz = ±0.5) and streamwise
(ωx = ±0.5) components of vorticity are shown in Figs. 12(a) and
12(b), respectively, for the instantaneous flow at a time instant when
CL achieves its maximum value. The spanwise primary vortices show
undulations as well as hairpin structures. Each wave of the spanwise
undulation is associated with a hairpin structure.
To investigate the time evolution of the hairpin structures,
the instantaneous flow at various time instants during the develop-
ment of three-dimensionality is studied. Figure 13 shows the time
history of the spanwise component of velocity in the wake of the
airfoil at x/c = 1.25, y/c = −0.05, and z/Lz = 0.75 for Re = 1400.
The regime of linear growth of three-dimensionality is identified
in Fig. 13 via shading. Figure 14 shows the flow at various time
instants that are marked in Fig. 13. The flow is devoid of hairpin
structures in most of the linear regime. They appear in the near
wake at close to the end of the linear regime, as shown in Figs. 14(a)
31, 114102-9
 Physics of Fluids
and 14(b). Once the flow achieves a limit cycle, the undulation
of the primary vortices as well as the hairpin structures becomes
strong, as seen from the flow [Figs. 14(c) and 14(d)] at t = t c and t d ,
respectively.
FIG. 11. Variation of the normalized mean spanwise wavelength ( λdz ) of the three-
dimensional instability with Red . Also shown is ( λdz ) for the NACA 001543 airfoil at
α = 20○ , α = 17.5○ , α = 15○ , and α = 12.5○ , the NACA 00129 airfoil at α = 20○ ,
and a circular cylinder.18 The Re shown on the upper edge, along the x-axis, is
based on the chord-length of the Eppler 61 airfoil.
Phys. Fluids 31, 114102 (2019); doi: 10.1063/1.5113823
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FIG. 10. 3D flow past an Eppler 61 air-
foil at α = 10○ : spanwise variation of ωx
in the wake (x/c = 1.97, y/c = 0.075) for
various Re (a) 1350, (b) 1400, (c) 1600,
(d) 1700, (e) 1800, and (f) 1850 at t,
t + T, and t + 2T.
An instantaneous picture of the flow in the near wake for the
fully developed unsteady flow at various Re is shown in Fig. 15. The
time instant, for all the cases, is the one at which the CL achieves
its peak value. The Q isosurface, colored by the pressure coefficient
(Cp ), is used to show the flow. The hairpin structures are barely vis-
ible for Re = 1300 [Fig. 15(a)]. They are fairly well developed and
almost uniformly distributed along the span for 1350 ≤ Re ≤ 1600
[Figs. 15(b)–15(d)]. Their size increases with an increase in Re. For
Re ≤ 1700, the distribution of hairpins along the span is no longer
uniform. Interestingly, the distribution for Re = 1700 is symmet-
ric about the midspan. This spatial symmetry is lost for Re > 1700
[Figs. 15(e)–15(i)]. In fact, for Re = 15 000 and 38 000 [Figs. 15(h)–
15(i)], the hairpin structures appear to be randomly interspersed in
the wake.
We attempt to study the evolution of the geometry of the hair-
pin structures with Re. The spanwise spacing between the centerlines
of two hairpins (hp ) and the distance between the two limbs of each
hairpin (hs ) are utilized to characterize the geometry of these struc-
tures. These dimensions are marked in Figs. 15(d)–15(f) for various
Re. For Re ≤ 1600, the distribution of hairpins along the span is uni-
form. Therefore, a single set of values of hs , and hp each, describe
the geometry. However, for Re > 1600, the distribution of hairpins
is not uniform across the span. In such cases, we seek a spanwise
average of hp . Figures 15(e) and 15(f) show the different spacings
between two consecutive hairpins along the span marked as hp1 ,
hp2 , and hp3 . The spanwise Cp distribution along a line that passes
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FIG. 12. Flow past an Eppler 61 airfoil

at Re = 1400 and α = 10○ : Q isosurface
(Q = 0.01) colored with (a) spanwise and
(b) streamwise components of vorticity.
Also shown are the close-up views of
hairpin vortices.

FIG. 13. 3D flow past an Eppler 61 airfoil at Re = 1400

and α = 10○ : time history of the spanwise component of
w velocity in the wake of the airfoil at (x/c, y/c, z/Lz ) = (1.25,
−0.05, 0.75). The regime of linear growth of the instability
is shaded.

through the hairpins is utilized to identify their spatial location. The
(x, y) coordinates for this line are suitably chosen for each Re. The Cp
distribution is shown in Fig. 16. Consider, for example, the case of
Re = 1350 [Figs. 15(b) and 16(a)]. As shown in Fig. 15(b), the Cp on
the prongs of the hairpin is larger than that on the primary vortices.
We utilize this variation to estimate hs and hp . They are marked in
Fig. 16. In those cases, where hp is not uniform along the span, the
various possible values of hp , as shown in Figs. 15(e) and 15(f), are
also marked. Figure 17 shows the variation of mean hp and hs with
Red . For comparison, λz is marked as well. For 1300 ≤ Re ≤ 1600,
the hairpins are periodic and their distribution is uniform along the
span. In this regime, spacing between successive hairpins is the same
as the spanwise wavelength of the mode C instability, i.e., hp = λz . In
addition, in this regime, hs ∼ 0.5hp . In general, for all Re, the span-
wise wavelength of the mode C instability is roughly the same as the
average spacing between the hairpin structures and twice the spacing
between the two limbs of the hairpin.
V. SPATIOTEMPORAL STRUCTURE OF THE FLOW
The sectional lift coefficient Cl (z, t), at any spanwise location,
embodies the integrated signature of the flow past the airfoil at that

FIG. 14. 3D flow past an Eppler 61 airfoil at Re = 1400 and α = 10○ : instantaneous Q isosurface (Q = 0.01) at different time instants (a) t a , (b) t b , (c) t c , and (d) t d marked in
Fig. 13. The trailing edge of the airfoil is shown by dashed lines. The flow is from left to right.

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FIG. 15. 3D flow past an Eppler 61 airfoil at α = 10○ : instantaneous Q isosurface colored with the coefficient of pressure for various Re. The range of the color map
(Cpmin = −C̃, Cpmax = C̃) and q the value of Q for the isosurface is different for each Re. (Re, ±C̃, q) for various cases are (a) (1300, ±0.05, 0.01), (b) (1350, ±0.05, 0.01),
(c) (1500, ±0.05, 0.01), (d) (1600, ±0.05, 0.01), (e) (1700, ±0.05, 0.01), (f) (1850, ±0.05, 0.01), (g) (4000, ±0.05, 0.01), (h) (15 000, −1, 0.2, 0.1), and (i) (38 000, −1.5, 0.2,
0.1). For each case, the time instant is when CL achieves its maximum value for the fully developed unsteady flow. Also marked is the spacing between the hairpins (hp ) and
their limbs (hs ).

spanwise section. The span-averaged lift coefficient CL (t) is related
L /2 ̃l (z, t)
to Cl (z, t) as CL (t) = L1z ∫−Lz z /2 Cl (z, t)dz. We further define C
̃l (z, t) = Cl (z, t) − CL (t). It represents the spanwise fluctuation
as C
in the sectional lift coefficient with respect to the span-averaged lift
̃l (z, t) at various Re
coefficient at any time instant. The variation of C
is shown in Fig. 18 and is utilized to understand the spatiotempo-
ral structure of the flow. The flow is two-dimensional and C ̃l (z, t) is
zero for Re < 1280.9. For Re ≥ 1280.9, the flow is three-dimensional
and associated with mode C instability and hairpins. Figures 18(a)–
18(e) show C ̃l is periodic in time with a period of 2T, where T is the
time period for primary vortex shedding. As for the spanwise varia-
tion of C ̃l , it is very regular for Re ≤ 1600 and becomes irregular for
Re ≥ 1700.
It is very interesting to observe the spatiotemporal evolution
̃l with Re. The flow exhibits periodicity both in space and
of C
time at the onset of three-dimensionality and up to a certain Re.
For example, for Re = 1300 and 1600 [Figs. 18(a) and 18(b)], the
flow is associated with a very regular spatiotemporal pattern. At
Re = 1700, it retains temporal periodicity and a spatial symmetry
about midspan [Fig. 18(c)]. The spanwise variations for Re = 1800
and 1850 [Figs. 18(d) and 18(e)] are not periodic but still retain a
certain pattern while the flow is still associated with a temporal peri-
odicity. This pattern completely disappears at Re = 4000 and 12 000
[Figs. 18(f) and 18(g)], and the flow appears to be dominated by
some large scale spanwise variations. The flow at Re = 46 000, on the
other hand, is primarily associated with small scale variation, both

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 Physics of Fluids
along the span and in time. There is no discernible pattern along the
̃l exhibits a virtually homogeneous distribution.
span, rather the C
VI. LAMINAR SEPARATION BUBBLE
Figure 19 shows the spanwise component of vorticity, ωz , for
the fully developed unsteady flow at a time instant when the lift
coefficient is at its peak value. The vorticity field and the stream-
lines for the span- and time-averaged flow, for the 3D-computations,
are shown in Fig. 20. Figures 19 and 20 show the role of the
shear layer vortices in the formation of the laminar separation bub-
ble as well as its evolution with an increase in Re. The separated
shear layer becomes unstable beyond a certain Re and rolls up into
shear layer vortices. The location of the formation of these vortices
moves upstream, toward the leading edge, with an increase in Re.
FIG. 17. 3D flow past an Eppler 61 airfoil at α = 10○ : variation of mean hp /d, hs /d
for the hairpin structures and λz /d for the mode C instability, with Red . Re based
on the chord of the airfoil is shown on the upper edge along the x-axis.
Phys. Fluids 31, 114102 (2019); doi: 10.1063/1.5113823
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FIG. 16. 3D flow past an Eppler 61 air-
foil at α = 10○ : spanwise Cp distribution
for the fully developed unsteady flow for
various Re at a time instant when CL is
maximum. The (x/c, y/c) location is cho-
sen at each Re to bring out the spanwise
variation across the hairpins. The (Re,
x/c, y/c) for various cases are (a) (1350,
2.084, 0.084), (b) (1600, 2.046, 0.094),
(c) (1700, 1.898, 0.062), and (d) (1850,
1.905, 0.072).
2D simulations show that at Re ∼ 7000, the shear layer vortices
in the separated shear layer cause the flow to reattach to the sur-
face of the airfoil forming the laminar separation bubble. The same
occurs for 3D simulations at a larger Re (∼20 000). The forma-
tion of the bubble has a significant influence on the aerodynamic
coefficients: an increase in lift and a reduction in drag coefficient
(see Fig. 4).
Figure 20 shows the time- and span-averaged flow for the 3D
computations along with the u′ v ′ component of the Reynolds stress.
The Reynolds stress represents the intensity of unsteadiness in the
flow. As shown in Fig. 19(e), for the Re = 10 000 flow, the sepa-
rated shear layer rolls into small vortices toward the aft section of
the airfoil. The u′ v ′ component of Reynolds stress is observed to be
relatively large in this region, as shown in Fig. 20(a). At Re = 19 000,
the location of the onset of shear layer instability moves upstream
and the shear layer vortices become stronger [Fig. 19(f)]. The same
is observed from Fig. 20(b). As Re increases further, the shear layer
vortices begin to form further upstream, thereby getting closer to the
upper wall of the airfoil. This facilitates their interactions with the
flow close to the surface of the airfoil. At a certain Re, this interaction
energizes the flow close to the wall of the airfoil causing it to reattach.
The time-averaged vorticity field and streamlines in Fig. 20(c) clearly
show the appearance of laminar separation bubble at Re = 20 000.
On further increase in Re, the bubble moves upstream as seen from
Figs. 19(h) and 20(d).
Figures 19(g) and 20(c) show the mechanism of the formation
of the LSB. The boundary layer is associated with very low u′ v ′ at
the point of separation. However, the unsteadiness in the rolled up
vortices formed due to the instability of the separated shear layer
leads to large u′ v ′ causing a reattachment of the flow. Figure 20(c)
clearly shows that the u′ v ′ is large toward the aft end of the LSB. The
same is observed in Fig. 20(d) for higher Re (=46 000). Figure 21(a)
shows the close-up view of the time- and span-averaged streamlines
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̃l for various Re. The range of the color map (C

FIG. 18. 3D flow past an Eppler 61 airfoil at α = 10○ : space time contour of C ̃lmin = −C̃, C
̃lmax = +C̃) is different for each Re.
(Re, ±C̃) for each case is (a) (1300, ±5 × 10−5 ), (b) (1600, ±1 × 10−4 ), (c) (1700, ±5 × 10−4 ), (d) (1800, ±1 × 10−3 ), (e) (1850, ±1 × 10−3 ), (f) (4000, ±1 × 10−2 ), (g)
(12 000, ±2 × 10−2 ), (h) (20 000, ±2 × 10−2 ), and (i) (46 000, ±1 × 10−2 ).

at this Re along with the mean velocity profiles at various chordwise onset of reattachment is associated with a sudden upstream move-
locations. The region of reverse flow, on the upper surface, is clearly ment of the separation point by 10% of chord, approximately. As
seen. The velocity profiles in terms of the inner variables (u+ and y+ ) already seen from the flow pictures, compared to the 3D computa-
are shown at x/c = 0.32 and 0.52 in Fig. 21(b). Both these locations tions, the onset of reattachment of the flow occurs at a lower Re for
are downstream of the LSB after the flow has undergone a turbu- the 2D computations. This is related to the relatively stronger shear
u yuτ
lent reattachment. u+ and y+ are defined as u+ = and y+ = , layer vortices in the 2D computations. With an increase in Re, both
√ uτ ν separation and reattachment points move toward the leading edge.
where uτ (= C̄f /2U∞ ) is the friction velocity and ν is the kine- It is interesting to note that beyond Re ∼ 20 000, both the two- and
matic viscosity of the fluid. Both the velocity profiles shown in three-dimensional simulations predict the same location of separa-
Fig. 21(b) exhibit log-law beyond the viscous sublayer, indicating a tion and reattachment points and the length of the bubble. This is
turbulent boundary layer. in line with the suggestion by Braza et al.27 and Singh and Mittal24
To further investigate the LSB, we track the locations for flow that the formation of the laminar separation bubble is primarily a
separation and reattachment with Re. Figure 21(c) shows the vari- two-dimensional phenomenon. Figure 21(d) shows that the length
ation, with Re, of flow separation and reattachment points on the of the LSB is largest at its onset and decreases with an increase in Re.
upper surface of the airfoil. The length of the separation bubble, Lb , Figure 21(c) indicates that the separation point is located very close
is estimated via the difference between the streamwise location of the to the leading edge in this entire regime of Re. The upstream move-
reattachment and separation points. Its variation with Re is shown ment of the reattachment point causes the shortening of the LSB
in Fig. 21(d). We note that both in the 2D and 3D simulations, the with an increase in Re.

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FIG. 19. Flow past an Eppler 61 air-

foil at α = 10○ : spanwise vorticity (ωz )
for the instantaneous flow at various Re
(a) 5000, (b) 7000, (c) 10 000, (d) 19 000,
(e) 10 000, (f) 19 000, (g) 20 000, and
(h) 46 000. The pictures are taken at
a time instant when the lift coefficient
achieves its peak for the fully evolved
unsteady flow. The pictures for the 3D
flow are at midspan.

FIG. 20. Flow past an Eppler 61 airfoil

at α = 10○ : spanwise component of vor-
ticity for the time- and span-averaged
flow (left) and u′ v ′ component of the
Reynolds stress superimposed with the
time- and span-averaged streamlines
(right) for various Re (a) 10 000, (b)
19 000, (c) 20 000, and (d) 46 000.

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FIG. 21. Flow past an Eppler 61 airfoil at α = 10○ : (a) close-up view of time- and span-averaged streamlines for Re = 46 000 flow showing the laminar separation bubble
(LSB) along with the mean velocity profile at various chordwise locations. Also marked are the separation (S) and reattachment (R) points on the upper surface of the airfoil.
The velocity profiles in terms of the inner variables are shown for x/c = 0.32 and 0.52 in (b). Dashed lines are the ideal profiles for linear sublayer and log-law for a zero
pressure-gradient turbulent boundary on a flat plate. The variation of the location of (S) and (R) with Re, for the time-averaged 2D and time- and span-averaged 3D flows, is
shown in (c). (d) shows the variation of the length (Lb ) of the LSB with Re.

The bubble significantly affects the pressure distribution on the
airfoil. Shown in Fig. 22 is the chordwise distribution of the time-
and span-averaged pressure coefficient (Cp ) for various Re. For ref-
erence, also shown are the x/c locations of separation and reattach-
ment points. The impact of the LSB on the pressure distribution on
the upper as well as lower surface of the airfoil is clearly observed.
For the curves corresponding to Re = 20 000 and above, a plateau
exists in the Cp distribution on the upper surface of the airfoil. It lies
between the separation and reattachment points. The plateau does
not exist for the Re = 19 000 flow, which is devoid of the LSB. It
is longest at the onset of the LSB and decreases in length with an
increase in Re. This confirms the association of the plateau with the
LSB. Arena and Mueller,12 via experiments, showed the appearance
of a slight adverse pressure gradient as the turbulent boundary layer
redevelops on the suction surface beyond the location of the reat-
tachment. In line with their observation, Fig. 22 shows an adverse
pressure gradient just downstream of the reattachment point. An
interesting effect of the formation of the LSB is the upstream move-
ment of the separation point on the upper surface and downstream
movement of the stagnation point on the lower surface of the air-
foil. This is observed from the close-up view of the time- and span-
averaged streamlines in Fig. 23. The downstream movement of the

Phys. Fluids 31, 114102 (2019); doi: 10.1063/1.5113823 31, 114102-16

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 Physics of Fluids
stagnation point causes a slight increase in the pressure on the lower
surface of the airfoil, as shown in Fig. 22.
VII. FREQUENCY OF THE PRIMARY AND SHEAR
LAYER INSTABILITIES
The time histories of the cross flow component of velocity
at certain spatial locations are utilized to estimate the frequencies
associated with the primary vortex shedding and shear layer vor-
tices. We denote the nondimensional dominant frequencies asso-
ciated with the vortex shedding by F K and shear layer by F SL . The
length and velocity scales used for the nondimensionalization are the
characteristic vertical dimension (c sin α) defined by Hoarau et al.9
and free-stream speed, respectively. A probe located at (x/c = 1.2,
y/c = −0.05, z = 0) is used to estimate F K . F SL is estimated via a probe
located at (x/c = 0.8, y/c = 0.05, z = 0) for Re ≤ 19 000. Subsequent to
the formation of the LSB, the shear layer instability moves upstream;
the time histories of the velocity at (x/c = 0.25, y/c = 0.05, z = 0)
are used to estimate F SL for Re ≥ 20 000. It is well accepted that the
vortex shedding is a consequence of an absolute instability of the
wake while the shear layer instability is convective in nature.25,26 As
a result, F K is associated with a relatively sharp peak in the velocity
spectra while the shear layer instability leads to broadband spec-
tra. Prasad and Williamson22 studied the shear layer instability, via
laboratory experiments, in the flow past a circular cylinder. They
Phys. Fluids 31, 114102 (2019); doi: 10.1063/1.5113823
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FIG. 22. Flow past an Eppler 61 airfoil at α = 10○ : chord-
wise distribution of the time- and span-averaged pressure
coefficient (Cp ) for various Re. The hollow circles and solid
squares show the x/c location of the separation and reat-
tachment points, respectively, on the suction surface of the
airfoil. For reference, the airfoil is also shown in solid thick
line.
suggested two techniques to determine the shear layer frequency.
In the first technique, F SL corresponds to the maximum in the
broadband peak of the long-time-averaged velocity spectra. Since
the shear-layer instability occurs intermittently, long-time-averaged
velocity spectra appear reduced in amplitude. In the second method,
F SL is measured from the period of shear-layer fluctuations using
time traces. A statistically significant sample is chosen to estimate a
reasonable value. A histogram between the percentage of total num-
ber of shear-layer cycles and frequency is utilized to select F SL . It
corresponds to that frequency which has the most prominent bin
in the histogram. Both techniques result in very similar results. The
“histogram” technique was used later by Singh and Mittal24 and
Behara and Mittal28 to determine F SL from their computational data
for flow past a cylinder. In the present work, the same technique is
utilized to estimate F SL .
Figures 24(a) and 24(b) show the variation of F K and F SL with
Re from the present study. Also shown is the best fit for these data
along with measurements from an earlier study by Huang and Lin.35
Both F K and F SL exhibit a power law. However, the variation prior to
and after the formation of LSB is different. F K varies as Re0.22 before
the appearance of LSB. This result is in very good agreement with the
one from Huang and Lin35 for a finite wing with a NACA 0012 sec-
tion at α = 9○ . After the LSB is formed, F K is found to vary as ∼Re1.03 .
The rate of increase in F K , with Re, is significantly larger after the
formation of LSB than the corresponding rate of increase before the
FIG. 23. Flow past an Eppler 61 airfoil
at α = 10○ : time- and span-averaged
streamlines close to the leading edge for
(a) Re = 19 000 and (b) Re = 20 000.
31, 114102-17
 Physics of Fluids
formation of the LSB. This result is in line with the observation by
Yarusevych et al.6 for their experiments for a NACA 0025 airfoil for
5.5 × 104 ≤ Re ≤ 2.10 × 105 . Yarusevych et al.6 found that F K does
not follow a power law in the large Re regime; rather, it exhibits a
linear relationship with Re. However, for low Re, the power law vari-
ation holds and was found to be Re1.04 for α = 10○ . Interestingly,
this is quite close to the variation in the post reattachment regime
for the present study. The variation of F SL , before and after the for-
mation of LSB, is ∼Re1.02 and ∼Re0.80 , respectively. Unlike F K , F SL
undergoes a sudden increase at the formation of LSB Re at which the
LSB is formed. Williamson14 showed that the shear layer frequency
is inversely proportional to the shear layer momentum thickness at
the flow separation (θSEP ). It is seen from Fig. 21(c) that the for-
mation of the LSB, at Re ∼ 20 000, is accompanied with a sudden
upstream movement of the separation point. A relatively early flow
separation leads to a reduction in θSEP and a consequent increase
in F SL . On the other hand, the primary vortex shedding is a wake
instability, and therefore, F K does not experience a jump on the for-
mation of LSB. For the flow past a cylinder, it is well known that
the ratio of the shear layer to primary vortex shedding frequency
(F SL /F K ) exhibits a power-law variation with Re.22,23,28 The variation
of F SL /F K with Re for the Eppler airfoil at α = 10○ from the present
study is shown in Fig. 24(c). The variation is Re0.80 before the appear-
ance of LSB and Re−0.23 beyond the formation of LSB. Although
both F K and F SL increase with an increase in Re, the ratio decreases
with Re beyond the formation of LSB. This was also observed
Phys. Fluids 31, 114102 (2019); doi: 10.1063/1.5113823
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FIG. 24. Flow past an Eppler 61 air-
foil at α = 10○ : variation of normalized
frequencies associated with (a) primary
shedding (F K ) and (b) shear layer (F SL )
with Re. The variation of the ratio of the
two frequencies is shown in (c). Also
shown in (a) is the F K for the NACA 0012
airfoil.35
by Yarusevych et al.6 in their experiments for the NACA0025
airfoil.
VIII. WAKE FORMATION LENGTH
The wake formation length (Lf ) is determined from the stream-
wise location of the maximum value of u′ u′ component of Reynolds
stress.44 Figure 25 shows the span-averaged u′ u′ for Re = 1300. Two
local maxima are identified: one in the upper-wake and the other in
the lower-wake. The streamwise distance of each of these maxima,
from the leading edge of the airfoil, is the wake formation length: Lfu
and Lfl . The transverse distance, from the leading edge, is referred to
as Lyu and Lyl . The subscripts “u” and “l” refer to the local maxima
in the upper-wake and lower-wake, respectively.
u′ u′ estimated from the two-dimensional spanwise section
(x–y) of the flow, for Re beyond the onset of three-dimensionality,
is expected to exhibit variation across the span. Figure 26 shows
the spanwise variation of the local maxima of u′ u′ , estimated from
a spanwise section of the flow, for the upper and lower wake at
two values of Re. The variation exhibits spanwise periodicity for
Re = 1600 while it is fairly irregular for Re = 2000. Lfu , Lfl , Lyu , and
Lyl (not shown here) exhibit a similar variation. The span-averaged
length scale, for various Re, is shown in Fig. 27. Lfu and Lfl decrease
with an increase in Re for up to Re ∼ 2000. The onset of shear
layer instability leads to a gradual increase in the length scales with
an increase in Re. As expected, the upper wake is relatively more
FIG. 25. 3D flow past an Eppler 61 air-
foil at α = 10○ and Re = 1300: span-
averaged u′ u′ component of Reynolds
stress. The wake formation length, Lfu
and Lfl , are defined from the leading
edge of the airfoil for the upper and lower
wake.
31, 114102-18
 Physics of Fluids
affected. Therefore, the rise in Lfu is larger than that in Lfl . Lfl is
largely unaffected by the formation of LSB.
IX. CONCLUSIONS
The flow past an Eppler 61 airfoil at an angle of attack α = 10○
has been investigated for 100 ≤ Re ≤ 87 000. Both 2D and 3D com-
putations have been carried out. A parallel implementation of the
stabilized finite element method has been deployed for the computa-
tions. The sequence of flow states, with an increase in Re, that leads
to transition of the flow is identified. The flow is steady at low Re
and becomes unsteady beyond Re ∼ 600 via the primary instability
of the wake leading to vortex shedding. Three-dimensionality sets
in at Re ∼ 1280.9 via mode C instability and hairpin vortices. The
hairpin vortex structures appear in the near wake as a consequence
of the undulations in the primary vortices. The spanwise wavelength
of the instability varies between 0.194 and 0.251c for 1280.9 < Re
≤ 1850. The data are in good agreement with those from earlier
studies for bluff body flows and other airfoils. The evolution of the
hairpin vortices with Re is also studied in terms of their width and
spacing along the span. They are uniformly distributed along the
span at the onset of three-dimensionality and interspersed rather
randomly at relatively large Re. The spanwise variation of the lift
coefficient, with respect to the span-averaged value, is utilized to
study the spatiotemporal structure of the flow. Period doubling is
observed for the flow in the regime 1300 ≤ Re ≤ 1850. The flow
is periodic with a time period of 2T, where T corresponds to the
Phys. Fluids 31, 114102 (2019); doi: 10.1063/1.5113823
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ARTICLE scitation.org/journal/phf
FIG. 26. 3D flow past an Eppler 61 airfoil
at α = 10○ : maximum u′ u′ across the
span for the upper and lower wake for
(a) Re = 1600 and (b) Re = 2000.
FIG. 27. Flow past an Eppler 61 airfoil at α = 10○ : variation
of the wake formation length (Lfu , Lfl ) with Re.
primary vortex shedding time period. This is consistent with the
observations from earlier studies for the flows with mode C insta-
bility and is confirmed from the spatiotemporal distribution of the
streamwise vorticity. The flow exhibits neither odd-RT nor even-
RT symmetry. Here, R denotes reflection about the wake axis and
T denotes translation in time. The flow is very regular and periodic
along the span for Re ≤ 1600. At Re = 1700, there are additional
variations along the span although the flow retains symmetry about
midspan. At larger Re, the flow loses symmetry as well as spanwise
periodicity.
The separated shear layer rolls up into shear layer vortices.
The location of the instability of the separated shear layer moves
upstream with an increase in Re. At Re ∼ 20 000 and beyond, the
shear layer vortices interact with the flow close to the surface of
the airfoil leading to its reattachment and formation of the Lami-
nar Separation Bubble (LSB). The reattachment of the flow leads to
an increased suction and a plateau of relatively large suction, in the
region of LSB, on the upper surface of the airfoil. The airfoil experi-
ences a very significant increase in the lift and a decrease in the drag
at the formation of LSB. The unsteady activity in the formation of
the bubble is evidenced by a relatively large Reynolds stress in the
region occupied by LSB. The length of the bubble is estimated via
tracking the separation and reattachment point of the time-averaged
flow. The formation of LSB is associated with a sudden upstream
movement of the separation point. The length of the LSB is largest at
its onset. With an increase in Re, both the separation and reattach-
ment points move upstream. However, since the separation point
31, 114102-19
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is already close to the leading edge, the upstream movement of the
reattachment point with an increase in Re is more significant. Thus,
the LSB shortens with an increase in Re. The sudden upstream move-
ment of the separation point at the onset of formation of LSB causes
a downstream movement of the stagnation point on the lower sur-
face of the airfoil. This, in turn, affects the pressure on the lower
surface.
Although the flow is already three-dimensional in the flow
regime when the LSB forms, the primary mechanism of the forma-
tion of LSB appears to be two-dimensional. The shear layer vortices
are relatively stronger in the 2D computations compared to those
in 3D. Consequently, the LSB forms at a relatively lower Re in the
2D computations (Re ∼ 7000). Beyond Re ∼ 20 000, the variation of
the length of the bubble, with Re, from 2D and 3D computations is
in good agreement. The effect of the LSB on the force coefficients
is also quite similar for the 2D and 3D computations. Barring the
location of the jump, the 2D computations show a reasonable agree-
ment with the variation of lift coefficient, with Re, to the predictions
from 3D computations. The drag is relatively more sensitive; 2D
computations overpredict drag beyond the formation of LSB.
The variation of the shear layer and primary wake frequency,
with Re, is studied. Both follow the power law. However, the vari-
ation before and after the formation of LSB is quite different. F K
varies as Re0.22 prior to and Re1.03 after the formation of LSB. The
corresponding variation of F SL in the two regimes is Re1.02 and Re0.80 .
Unlike F K , F SL suffers a jump at the formation of LSB. This is related
to the upstream movement of the separation point and a consequent
reduction in the momentum thickness of the boundary layer at the
separation point. The variation of the frequency ratio, F SL /F K , also
exhibits a power law: Re0.80 and Re−0.23 pre- and postformation of
LSB, respectively.
Wake formation length (Lf ) is estimated by locating the local
maxima of u′ u′ . Lf has been estimated in experimental studies in
the past by making measurements at a certain span location of the
model. It is shown in this study that for a three-dimensional flow,
estimation of u′ u′ from a 2D section shows spanwise variation.
Span-averaged values of Lf are presented for various Re. Two val-
ues of Lf are reported: Lfu and Lfl , for the upper- and lower-wake,
respectively.
The LSB plays a very significant role in the performance of
the airfoil at low Re. The present study investigates the flow on an
airfoil that has been specifically designed for low Reynolds num-
ber flows. Furthermore, the study is restricted to a certain angle of
attack. The study brings out the evolution of the flow and the transi-
tion of the boundary layer to a turbulent state with an increase in Re.
Although the transition to various states are expected to be affected
by the particular airfoil and the angle of attack, this study provides a
qualitative map of the rich behavior of the flow for a general airfoil,
with increasing Re.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Most of the computations were carried out at the High Perfor-
mance Computing facility at the Computer Center, Indian Institute
of Technology Kanpur, India, and funded primarily by the Depart-
ment of Science and Technology (DST), India. The authors are
grateful to Dr. Suresh Behara and C. S. Narain K. for their help with
some of the calculations and the related discussions at the start of the
work.
APPENDIX A: MESH CONVERGENCE STUDY
1. 2D mesh
a. Re = 1500, α = 10 ○
The uncertainty in the results from the computations is esti-
mated using a procedure proposed by Celik et al.37 The method
utilizes computations on a set of grids with varying spatial resolution
and Richardson extrapolation to arrive at an estimate of the numer-
ical uncertainty in the fine-grid solution. The time-averaged aero-
dynamic force coefficients are chosen as the key variables for deter-
1 2
mining the uncertainty. To this extent, three meshes (M2D , M2D , and
3
M2D ) are used in the present study. The number of grid points on the
1 2
surface of the airfoil for mesh M2D and M2D are 200 while the mesh
3
M2D consists of 300 points on the surface of the airfoil. Table III sum-
marizes the details of the three meshes and the time-averaged force
coefficients obtained from them. The three sets of results are in very
good agreement. Using these values and applying the extrapolation
procedure proposed by Celik et al.,37 the time-averaged lift and drag
coefficients corrected for spatial discretization errors for Re = 1500
are found out to be 1.0503 and 0.1657, respectively. The error in the
time-averaged lift and drag coefficient, relative to the extrapolated
value, for the three meshes is listed in Table III. The three meshes
are associated with a relatively low error and, therefore, provide ade-
2
quate spatial resolution. Hence, mesh M2D is sufficient to capture the
flow for Re ≤ 4000.
b. Re = 46 000, α = 10 ○
Next, the convergence study is undertaken for Re = 46 000 flow
to investigate the adequacy of the 2D mesh. Similar to the conver-
gence study carried out for Re = 1500 flow, we consider three finite
2 4 5
element meshes, namely, M2D , M2D , and M2D . A close-up view of the

TABLE III. 2D flow past an Eppler 61 airfoil at Re = 1500: airfoil is placed at α = 10○ . Time-averaged lift and drag coefficients
for three different finite element meshes. The fluctuation in lift and drag coefficient is also listed. Also listed is the percentage
error in time-averaged lift and drag coefficient with respect to the extrapolated value.

Mesh Nodes Elements Cl Cd Clrms Cdrms error(Cl ) (%) error(Cd ) (%)

1
M2D 15 045 29 836 1.0549 0.1691 0.0364 0.0079 0.44 2.05
2
M2D 26 530 52 806 1.0540 0.1710 0.0360 0.0075 0.35 3.19
3
M2D 47 173 93 981 1.0522 0.1696 0.0362 0.0075 0.18 2.35

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FIG. 28. A close-up view of the finite element mesh.

TABLE IV. 2D flow past an Eppler 61 airfoil at Re = 46 000: time-averaged and rms values of lift and drag coefficients for
three different finite element meshes. Also listed is the percentage error in time-averaged lift and drag coefficient with respect
to the extrapolated value.

Mesh Nodes Elements Cl Cd Clrms Cdrms error(Cl ) (%) error(Cd ) (%)

2
M2D 26 530 52 806 1.4647 0.1132 0.1221 0.0308 5.55 7.09
4
M2D 46 168 92 031 1.5348 0.1051 0.1454 0.0379 0.73 0.57
5
M2D 89 898 179 075 1.5451 0.1057 0.1506 0.0379 0.06 0

4
mesh M2D , near the airfoil, is shown in Fig. 28. The structured mesh
extends up to 0.85c from the surface of the airfoil. The thickness of
the first layer of elements lying on the surface of the airfoil is 0.0002c.
The time-averaged lift and drag coefficients for the three meshes
are shown in Table IV. Applying the extrapolation procedure, the
lift and drag coefficient corrected for spatial discretization error is
found out to be 1.5461 and 0.1057, respectively. Of the three meshes,
4 5
M2D and M2D are associated with a relatively low error and, there-
fore, provide adequate spatial resolution for these range of Reynolds
number. Therefore, for Re > 4000, mesh M2D 4
is good enough to
resolve the flow. For more details on the convergence study includ-
ing the effect of reducing the first element thickness, the interested
reader is referred to our earlier article.10
coefficients. The difference in the lift and drag coefficients for mesh
1 2
M3D and M3D is 0.09% and 0.06%, respectively. The computed aero-
dynamic force coefficients and their fluctuations are identical for
2 3
mesh M3D and the more refined mesh M3D . In addition, the iso-
surface of the instantaneous streamwise vorticity (ωx ), for the fully
developed unsteady solution at a time instant when the lift coeffi-
cient achieves its maximum value, obtained for all three meshes is
shown in Figs. 29(a)–29(c). Each mesh accommodates about nine
and a half cycles of streamwise vorticity (ωx ) in the wake of the
airfoil. The wavelength (λz ) present in the flow computed using all
three meshes is ∼0.21c. All three meshes provide adequate spatial
2
resolution. Mesh M3D is, therefore, utilized for all computations for
Re ≤ 4000.

b. Re = 46 000, α = 10 ○
2. 3D mesh convergence study
Next, a mesh convergence study is undertaken for three-
a. Re = 1500, α = 10 ○ dimensional computations at Re = 46 000. At this Re, a laminar sepa-
The flow at Re = 1500 is associated with a three-dimensional ration bubble exists on the upper surface of the airfoil. Three meshes
4 5 6
instability with a fairly regular spanwise structure. The adequacy of are utilized: M3D , M3D , and M3D . The spanwise extent of the domain
4 5 6
the spatial resolution of the mesh along the span, used for com- is Lz = 2.0c. Meshes M3D , M3D , and M3D are created by stacking 200,
4
putations, is investigated. Hoarau et al.9 showed that the spanwise 250, and 300 sections of the more refined 2D mesh M2D uniformly
wavelength of the three-dimensional instabilities in the wake of
an airfoil scales with c sin α, where α is the angle of attack. With
TABLE V. 3D flow past an Eppler 61 airfoil for Re = 1500 and α = 10○ : time-averaged
this scaling, the spanwise wavelength of the three-dimensional flow lift and drag coefficients for three different finite element meshes. Nz is the number of
structures is expected to be ∼0.174c for α = 10○ . To include suffi- sections of the 2D mesh (M2D 2 ) that are uniformly stacked along the span, L = 2.0c.
z
cient number of wavelengths of the instability, the spanwise extent The approximate number of nodes and elements, in millions, in the 3D mesh is listed.
of the domain is chosen to be Lz = 2.0c for the present computa-
1 2 3
tions. Three meshes are chosen. Meshes M3D , M3D , and M3D are Mesh Nz Nodes Elements CL CD CLrms CDrms
generated by stacking 100, 250, and 300 sections of the 2D mesh
2 1
M2D (see Table III) uniformly along the span. While the 2D mesh M3D 100 2.65M 5.22M 1.0188 0.1679 0.0270 0.0057
2
consists of 3-noded triangular elements, the elements in the 3D M3D 250 6.63M 13.14M 1.0179 0.1678 0.0265 0.0056
3
mesh are 6-noded right prisms with a triangular base. Table V M3D 300 7.95M 15.78M 1.0179 0.1678 0.0265 0.0056
shows the three finite element meshes and their time-averaged force

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 Physics of Fluids ARTICLE scitation.org/journal/phf

FIG. 29. Re = 1500 and α = 10○ : isosur-

face of streamwise vorticity (ωx = ±0.1)
for the fully developed unsteady solution
at a time instant when the lift coefficient
achieves its maximum value for the three
1 2 3
meshes: (a) M3D , (b) M3D , and (c) M3D .

along the span. Table VI summarizes the details of the three meshes various span considered. It can be seen that the results do not change
and the time-averaged force coefficients obtained from them. The significantly beyond Lz = 0.6c. The wavelength present in the flow for
results obtained are in good agreement. The difference in the lift and various spanwise extent of the domain is also listed in Table VII. It
4 5
drag coefficients between mesh M3D and M3D is 0.20% and 0.29%. does not change much for Lz = 0.8c and beyond. Lz = 2.0c is used for
5 6
Similarly, the corresponding value between mesh M3D and M3D is all computations in this work.
0.01% and 0.29%. The difference for all three meshes is quite small.
Also the difference in the fluctuations of lift and drag coefficients 2. Re = 46 000, α = 10 ○
The effect of the span on the flow, at Re = 46 000 and α = 10○ , is
is fairly small for the meshes considered. A convergence study was
also carried out for Re = 87 000. The difference in the time-averaged
5 6 studied by performing simulations for three values of span: 0.5c, 1c,
lift and drag coefficients between mesh M3D and M3D is 0.34% and
5 6 and 2c. The mesh is uniform along the span. The number of elements
0.35%. We conclude that both meshes M3D and M3D provide ade-
along the span is such that the spatial resolution is identical for the
quate spatial resolution for the range of Re computed in this work.
three cases. The time-averaged lift and drag coefficients and their
All the computations in this paper, for Re > 4000, are carried out with
6 fluctuations obtained for three spans are listed in Table VIII. The
mesh M3D . A time step of Δt = 0.002 is utilized for time integration
values obtained for span Lz = 1.0c and 2.0c are in good agreement.
of the governing equations.
The chordwise distribution of the time-averaged pressure coefficient
(Cp ), at two different locations along the span, is shown in Figs. 30(a)
APPENDIX B: EFFECT OF SPAN
1. Re = 1500, α = 10 ○ TABLE VII. 3D flow past an Eppler 61 airfoil at Re = 1500 and α = 10○ : time-averaged
lift and drag coefficients and their rms values obtained for various span lengths. Also
Figures 29(a)–29(c) show that the fully developed unsteady listed is the spanwise wavelength present in the wake of the airfoil.
flow at Re = 1500 is associated with 9.5 cycles of streamwise vor-
ticity (ωx ) of the three-dimensional instability along the span. With Lz /c CL CD CLrms CDrms λz /c
Lz = 2.0c, the corresponding wavelength of the spanwise instability is
λz = 2/9.5c (=0.21c), approximately. To investigate the effect of span 0.25 1.0198 0.1680 0.0273 0.0058 0.25
of the computational domain on λz , computations are carried out 0.40 1.0181 0.1678 0.0264 0.0056 0.19
2
for various values of Lz . The 2D section of the mesh, M2D , as well as 0.50 1.0199 0.1680 0.0273 0.0058 0.25
the spanwise resolution is identical in all the cases. For each span, a 0.60 1.0183 0.1679 0.0264 0.0056 0.19
fully developed 2D solution is stacked along the span and 3D com- 0.80 1.0182 0.1678 0.0264 0.0056 0.20
putations are carried out sufficiently to allow the solution to reach 1.00 1.0178 0.1678 0.0265 0.0056 0.22
a fully developed unsteady state. This flow is utilized to estimate the 1.20 1.0183 0.1679 0.0264 0.0056 0.20
wavelength of the three-dimensional instability. Table VII shows the 2.00 1.0179 0.1678 0.0265 0.0056 0.21
time-averaged lift and drag coefficients along with the rms values for 3.00 1.0180 0.1678 0.0267 0.0056 0.22

TABLE VI. 3D flow past an Eppler 61 airfoil for Re = 46 000 and α = 10○ : time-
averaged lift and drag coefficients for three different finite element meshes. Nz is the
number of sections of the 2D mesh (M2D 4 ) that are uniformly stacked along the span.
The approximate number of nodes and elements, in millions, in the 3D mesh is listed.
TABLE VIII. Re = 46 000 and α = 10○ : time-averaged lift and drag coefficients and
their rms values obtained for various span lengths. The 2D sectional mesh used is
4 , and the spanwise resolution of the mesh is identical in all the cases.
M2D

Mesh N z Nodes Elements CL CD CLrms CDrms Lz /c CL CD CLrms CDrms

4
M3D 200 9.23M 18.31M 1.5343 0.0688 0.0036 0.000 84 0.5 1.5344 0.0686 0.0069 0.001 41
5
M3D 250 11.54M 22.91M 1.5311 0.0686 0.0037 0.000 82 1.0 1.5307 0.0684 0.0045 0.000 90
6
M3D 300 13.85M 27.51M 1.5309 0.0684 0.0035 0.000 81 2.0 1.5309 0.0684 0.0035 0.000 81

Phys. Fluids 31, 114102 (2019); doi: 10.1063/1.5113823 31, 114102-22

Published under license by AIP Publishing
 Physics of Fluids
FIG. 30. Flow past an Eppler 61 airfoil at Re = 46 000 and α = 10○ : chordwise variation of the time-averaged coefficient of pressure Cp on the surface of airfoil at two different
span locations (a) z/Lz = 0.25 and (b) z/Lz = 0.75. Also shown in (c) is the location of separation and reattachment points for the time-averaged flow across the span for
various lengths of the span.
and 30(b) for various span lengths. It is seen that the Cp distribu-
tion is virtually the same for all span lengths. The variation of the
separation and reattachment points along the span of the airfoil for
different span lengths is shown in Fig. 30(c). It can be observed that
there is no significant spanwise variation in the location of separa-
tion and reattachment point on the airfoil surface. Zhang and Sam-
taney38 reached a similar conclusion in their work. They investigated
the effect of the spanwise extent of the computational domain on the
flow past a NACA 0012 airfoil for Re = 50 000 placed at 5○ angle of
attack. Various values of span length in the range 0.1–0.8c, where c is
the chord length of the airfoil, were considered. It was found that the
time-averaged flow quantities are virtually independent of the aspect
ratio, for the range considered. The mean separation and reattach-
ment locations are also independent of the aspect ratio, although the
mean velocity field within the separation bubble is slightly affected.
The effect of aspect ratio is more notable on the turbulent statistics.
In the present study, to capture the flow dynamics for the Reynolds
number regime considered, simulations are carried out with
Lz = 2.0c.
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