From Class Assignment To Published Aerospace Engineering Research

From Class Assignment To Published Aerospace Engineering Research

Griffith-type transonic airfoil inside an wind tunnel test section. Credit: University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

Armando Collazo Garcia III received more than he anticipated from a graduate course he took last spring. He gained a new understanding of the physics of transonic shocks generated throughout a laminar flow airfoil with boundary-layer suction and included a published paper in his resume.

Also, said that when he obtained the assignment to do an investigation project, he understood that he already had a good amount of data from his master’s thesis that he could make use of in a new way. Collazo Garcia continued by saying that he managed to apply linear algebra techniques to adjust the flow field data and break the information down into modes.

The modes supplied of several facets of the flow and were rated, with the superior modes revealing the essential characteristics of the flow. The beauty of this technique is it eliminates all of the random noise all of the uncertainty related to the data– and determines the modes that are essential so we can more efficiently study the process.”

The report was produced for the course AE 598– Modal Analysis of Fluid Flow taught by Theresa Saxton-Fox, assistant professor in the Department of Aerospace Engineering at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.

Three modes showing Mach wave where you can observe the build up leading to the fully developed shock, oscillation, and dissipation. Credit: University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

He explained very that from the this process, he discovered how to make use of modal analysis tecniques, particularly appropriate orthogonal decomposition, and how the technique could assist him in comprehending the dominant modes and dominant aspects in the flow in question. Collazo Garcia added that in doing the analysis, he discovered how taking into consideration a decreased order model using the dominant modes permitted him to comprehend the dynamics and the essential physics of the process without the unsteadiness and noise that exists in the data.

For his master’s thesis, Collazo Garcia evaluated the aerodynamic performance and associated flow characteristics of a Griffith-type laminar flow airfoil in a transonic setting. People noted that applying suction reduced this large instability in the shock position and unstable movement. The work he started in Saxton-Fox’s course permitted him to make use of modal analysis to grow his understanding of this oscillatory shock process.

Collazo Garcia said that they were able to acquire the associated frequencies of each mode and had the ability to create a reconstruction of the process and record the essential physics by excluding all the associated unsteadiness and noise in the data. Coafterwardia also mentioned that they observed the mach wave build-up, which produces the fully developed shock. After oscillation, it dissipates, and afterward, we see the process forming again.

Collazo Garcia stated that the reconstruction, which assumed a single Fourier mode for every appropriate orthogonal decomposition mode, is a quite basic technique that can be applied to other flows and various other data sets to comprehend the underlying physics, the essential characteristics in an unstable process.


Originally published by: scitechdaily.com, March 11, 2021.

Reference: “Modal Analysis of the Transonic Shock Process over a Griffith-Type, Laminar-Flow Airfoil” by Armando R. Collazo Garcia III, Theresa Saxton-Fox and Phillip J. Ansell, 4 January 2021, AIAA Scitech 2021 Forum.

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