Characterizing a burst leading-edge vortex on a rotating flat plate wing

Identifying, characterizing, and tracking incoherent vortices in highly separated flows is of interest for the development of new low-order models for unsteady lift prediction. The current work examines several methods to identify vortex burst and characterize a burst leading-edge vortex. Time-resolved stereoscopic PIV was performed on a rotating flat plate wing at Re = 2500. The burst process was found to occur at mid-span and is characterized by axial flow reversal, the entrainment of opposite-sign vorticity, and a rapid expansion of vortex size. A POD analysis revealed that variations in certain mode coefficients are indicative of the flow state changes characteristics of burst. During burst, the leading-edge vortex evolves to a region of inhomogeneous vorticity distributed over a large area. Several methods of defining the vortex size and circulation are evaluated and a combination of these can be used to characterize the leading-edge vortex both pre- and post-burst.