Limit-cycle oscillations in unsteady flows dominated by intermittent leading-edge vortex shedding

High-frequency limit-cycle oscillations of an airfoil at low Reynolds number are studied numerically. This regime is characterized by large apparent-mass effects and intermittent shedding of leading-edge vortices. Under these conditions, leading-edge vortex shedding has been shown to result in favorable consequences such as high lift and efficiencies in propulsion/power extraction, thus motivating this study. The aerodynamic model used in the aeroelastic framework is a potential-flow-based discrete-vortex method, augmented with intermittent leading-edge vortex shedding based on a leading-edge suction parameter reaching a critical value. This model has been validated extensively in the regime under consideration and is computationally cheap in comparison with Navier-Stokes solvers. The structural model used has degrees of freedom in pitch and plunge, and allows for large amplitudes and cubic stiffening. The aeroelastic framework developed in this paper is employed to undertake parametric studies which evaluate the impact of different types of nonlinearity. Structural configurations with pitch-to-plunge frequency ratios close to unity are considered, where the flutter speeds are lowest (ideal for power generation) and reduced frequencies are highest. The range of reduced frequencies studied is two to three times higher than most airfoil studies, a virtually unexplored regime. Aerodynamic nonlinearity resulting from intermittent leading-edge vortex shedding always causes a supercritical Hopf bifurcation, where limit-cycle oscillations occur at freestream velocities greater than the linear flutter speed. The variations in amplitude and frequency of limit-cycle oscillations as functions of aerodynamic and structural parameters are presented through the parametric studies. The excellent accuracy/cost balance offered by the methodology presented in this paper suggests that it could be successfully employed to investigate optimum setups for power harvesting in the low-Reynolds-number regime. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.