Counter-hairpin vortices in the turbulent wake of a sharp trailing edge
Authors: Ghaemi Sina , Scarano Fulvio 
Published: November 2011

The unsteady organization and evolution of coherent structures within the turbulent boundary layer and subsequent wake of the sharp symmetric trailing edge of a NACA0012 aerofoil are investigated. The experiments are conducted in an open test-section wind tunnel at ${\mathit{Re}}_{c} = \text{386\hspace{0.167em}000} $ based on the aerofoil chord and ${\mathit{Re}}_{\theta } = 1300$ based on the boundary layer momentum thickness. An initial characterization of the flow field using two-component particle image velocimetry (PIV) is followed by the investigation of the unsteady organization and evolution of coherent structures by time-resolved three-dimensional PIV based on a tomographic approach (Tomo-PIV). The inspection of the turbulent boundary layer prior to the trailing edge in the region between 0.15 and $0. 8\hspace{0.167em} {\delta }_{99} $ demonstrated streaks of low- and high-speed flow, while the low-speed streaks are observed to be more coherent along with strong interaction with hairpin-type vortical structures similar to a turbulent boundary layer at zero pressure gradient. The wake region demonstrated gradual deterioration of both the low- and the high-speed streaks with downstream progress. However, the low-speed streaks are observed to lose their coherence at a faster rate relative to the high-speed streaks as the turbulent flow develops towards the far wake. The weakening of the low-speed streaks is due to the disappearance of the viscous sublayer after the trailing edge and gradual mixing through the transport of the remaining low-speed flow towards the free stream. This transport of low-speed flow is performed by the ejection events induced by the hairpin vortices as they also persist into the developing wake. The higher persistence of the high-speed streaks is associated with counter-hairpin vortical activities as they oppose the deterioration of the high-speed streaks by frequently sweeping the high-speed flow towards the wake centreline. These vortical structures are regarded as counter-hairpin vortices as they exhibit opposite characteristics relative to the hairpin vortices of a turbulent boundary layer. They are topologically similar to the hairpins as they appear to be U-shaped but with inverted orientation, as the spanwise portion is in the vicinity of the wake centreline and the legs are inclined at an approximately $6{0}^{\ensuremath{\circ} } $ to the wake axis in the downstream direction demonstrating a strain-dominated topology. The counter-hairpin vortices are partially wrapped around the high-speed streaks and contribute to the wake development by transporting high-speed flow towards the wake centreline. Similar to the hairpin vortices of a turbulent boundary layer, the occurrence of a complete counter-hairpin vortex is occasional while its derivatives (portions of spanwise or quasi-streamwise vortices) are more frequently observed. Therefore, a pattern recognition algorithm is applied to establish characterization based on an ensemble-averaged counter-hairpin vortex. The formation of the counter-hairpin vortices is due to an additional degree of interaction between the low- and high-speed streaks after the trailing edge across the wake centreline. The shear layer produced along the wake centreline by neighbouring low- and high-speed streaks promotes the formation of spanwise vortices that form the counter-hairpin vortices by connection to quasi-streamwise vortices. Finally, a conceptual model is proposed to depict the three-dimensional unsteady organization and evolution of coherent structures in the wake region based on the hairpin and counter-hairpin vortex signatures.