Near ground aircraft wake dissipation with obstacles

The current study is a collaboration between the German Aerospace Center (DLR), the Nanyang Technological University, and the Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore to explore the effects of different ground based obstacles on the evolution of near ground wake vortex. Simulations were conducted using OpenFOAM solver, and validated against the DLR water tow-tank data collected using PIV measurements.¹ The simulation domain was scaled to match the tow tank dimensions, and the vortex pair were initialized using Lamb-Oseen vortex equation using Τ₀ and rç values from the PIV data. Simulations were conducted in the tow tank simulation domain for flat ground without obstacles and with obstacles of various configuration and design.