Chinese Journal of Aeronautics, (2014),27(1): 3439

Chinese Society of Aeronautics and Astronautics

& Beihang University
Chinese Journal of Aeronautics
cja@buaa.edu.cn
www.sciencedirect.com

Generalized KuttaJoukowski theorem for multi-vortex

and multi-airfoil ow (a lumped vortex model)
Bai Chenyuan, Wu Ziniu *

School of Aerospace, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China

Received 5 January 2013; revised 20 February 2013; accepted 25 February 2013

Available online 31 July 2013

KEYWORDS Abstract For purpose of easy identication of the role of free vortices on the lift and drag and for
Incompressible ow; purpose of fast or engineering evaluation of forces for each individual body, we will extend in this
Induced drag; paper the KuttaJoukowski (KJ) theorem to the case of inviscid ow with multiple free vortices and
Induced lift; multiple airfoils. The major simplication used in this paper is that each airfoil is represented by a
Multi-airfoils; lumped vortex, which may hold true when the distances between vortices and bodies are large
Vortex enough. It is found that the KuttaJoukowski theorem still holds provided that the local freestream
velocity and the circulation of the bound vortex are modied by the induced velocity due to the out-
side vortices and airfoils. We will demonstrate how to use the present result to identify the role of
vortices on the forces according to their position, strength and rotation direction. Moreover, we will
apply the present results to a two-cylinder example of Crowdy and the Wagner example to demon-
strate how to perform fast force approximation for multi-body and multi-vortex problems. The
lumped vortex assumption has the advantage of giving such kinds of approximate results which
are very easy to use. The lack of accuracy for such a fast evaluation will be compensated by a rig-
orous extension, with the lumped vortex assumption removed and with vortex production included,
in a forthcoming paper.
2014 Production and hosting by Elsevier Ltd. on behalf of CSAA & BUAA.
Open access under CC BY-NC-ND license.

1. Introduction unseparated ow. In this hypothesis, viscosity is explicitly ig-

For a two-dimensional incompressible ow around a single air-
foil with a sharp trailing edge at incidence, it is well known that
the KuttaJoukowski (KJ) hypothesis holds at least for steady
* Corresponding author. Tel.: +86 10 62784116; fax: +86 10
62772480.
E-mail address: ziniuwu@mail.tsinghua.edu.cn (Z. Wu).
Peer review under responsibility of Editorial Committee of CJA.
Production and hosting by Elsevier
1000-9361 2014 Production and hosting by Elsevier Ltd. on behalf of CSAA & BUAA. Open access under CC BY-NC-ND license.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cja.2013.07.022
nored but implicitly incorporated in the Kutta condition (see
Refs. 1,2). The Kutta condition imposes a circulation or a bound
vortex attached to the airfoil and creates a starting vortex, of an
opposite sign, which moves in the downstream direction.
The lift thus predicted by the KuttaJoukowski theorem
within the framework of inviscid ow theory is quite accurate
even for real viscous ow, provided the ow is steady and
unseparated.
There are a number of applications where we encounter
multiple vortices and multiple airfoils. Streitlien and Trian-
tafyllou3 considered a single Joukowski airfoil surrounded
with point vortices convecting freely and derived a force for-
mula. In this formula the force is related to the relative velocity
Generalized KuttaJoukowski theorem for multi-vortex and multi-airfoil ow (a lumped vortex model) 35

of the point vortices. Smith et al.4,5 studied multi-blade ows L qV1 us Cb
Generalized KJa 2
with interaction. Panel methods have also been developed D qvs Cb
for multi-element airfoils (see Ref. 6). Crowdy7 found the com-
plex potential to calculate the lift for a nite stack of cylinders where (us, vs) is the velocity at the (center of the) current airfoil
with imposed circulation. Force decomposition for multi-body induced by an outside vortex.
ows has also been considered using an integral approach (see Now, we consider M free vortices, each with a position
Refs. 8,9). None of this work considered the force formula for (xj, yj) and circulation Cj for j = 1, 2,   , M around an airfoil
each airfoil in the form of the KuttaJoukowski theorem. Wu represented by a bound vortex of circulation Cb at the center of
et al.10 extended the Lagally theorem to multi-body ows with the airfoil. A point vortex j, whether it is a free or bound vor-
free point vortices, but not considering the existence of any tex, induces a velocity at (x, y) given by:
8 Cj y  yj
bound vortex. >
>
> v x; y  
Through nding the complex potential and using the < x 2p x  xj 2 y  yj 2
Blasius theorem, Katz and Plotkin6 (see chapter 6.9, general- 3
>
> Cj x  xj
ized KuttaJoukowski theorem) developed a generalized >
: vy x; y  
KuttaJoukowski theorem for an airfoil in interaction with 2p x  xj 2 y  yj 2
another airfoil represented by a lumped vortex of opposite It is well-known that a single point vortex in relative mo-
circulation. tion, at the velocity (dxj/dt, dyj/dt), to the uid offers a force
For problems with multiple airfoils and multiple free vorti- to the body given by11:
ces, it is always possible to derive an exact theory or use 8  
numerical computation to obtain the forces on each body. >
> dxj
>
< L j q V 1  Cj
However, for easy identication of the role of each free vortex dt
Saffman 4
and for fast evaluation of force approximation as required by >
> dyj
>
: Dj q Cj
engineers, we require the force formulas to be explicit, captur-
dt
ing the main physics and easy to use, almost as simple as the
classical KuttaJoukowski theorem. For this purpose, we In the case of a bound vortex (bounded to a body) sur-
make an extension of the generalized KuttaJoukowski theo- rounded by M free vortices, the forces due to each vortex
rem to the case of multiple airfoils with multiple free vortices, sum up to give:
using the lumped vortex assumption as by Katz and Plotkin.6 8
> XM  
>
> dxj
In this assumption each airfoil is represented by a lumped vor- > L qV1 Cb  q
> V1  Cj
< dt
tex at the position of the center of the airfoil. The accuracy of j1
5
this assumption will be assessed in conclusion. The extension >
> X M
dyj
>
> D q C
to multiple airfoils without the lumped vortex assumption will >
: j
j1
dt
be considered in a forthcoming paper. This paper will be orga-
nized as follows. In Section 2, we derive force formula in terms The force formulas Eq. (5) or formulas in similar forms
of induced velocity for a single airfoil interacting with multiple have been frequently used to study the interaction of a cylinder
free vortices. In Section 3 we extend the force formula to the with M free vortices (see Ref. 12 for more details and
case of multiple body in such a way that the force formula references).
holds individually for each airfoil. Supplemented by a two cyl- Now we relate the velocity (dxj/dt, dyj/dt) for each vortex to
inder example and the Wagner problem, which are presented the induction by other vortices to nd an explicit and new
in Appendix A and B respectively, we will assess the accuracy force formula through Eq. (5).
and usefulness of the present results in Section 4. In Section 4, With r2ij xj  xi 2 yj  yi 2 and r2jb xj  xb 2
we will also discuss how to use the present results to identify yj  yb 2 , the velocity of the free vortices due to free
the role of outside vortices on the lift and drag. convection induced by the bound vortex and other free
vortices is:
2. Single airfoil with multiple free vortices 8
> XM
> dxj V1  Cb yj  yb 
>
>
Ci yj  yi
>
< dt 2
2prjb 2pr2ij
Consider an incompressible two-dimensional ow around an i1;ij
6
airfoil with a velocity eld v = (u, v) at constant density q, in >
> dyj Cb xj  xb XM
Ci xj  xi
>
>
an unbounded domain Rf. The freestream velocity V1 is : dt
>
2pr2jb

2pr2ij
i1;ij
assumed horizontal. The circulation of the bound vortex is
dened as Cb =oA(udx + vdy) for the closed curve oA along Inserting the above equations into the force formula
the airfoil, with a counterclockwise path, so that a clockwise Eq. (5), we obtain:
circulation has a negative sign. The classic KuttaJoukowski 8
theorem expresses the lift (L) and the drag (D) per unit span > XM
Cb Cj yj  yb XM X M
Cj Ci yj  yi
>
>
> L qV1 Cb  q
> 2
q
as: < j1
2pr jb j1 i1;ij
2pr2ij

L qV1 Cb >
> XM XM X
M
 KJ theory 1 >
> Cb Cj xj  xb Cj Ci xj  xi
D0 >
: D q 2
q
j1
2pr jb 2pr2
j1 i1;ij ij
Katz and Plotkin6 showed that for an airfoil in interaction
with another airfoil, represented by a lumped vortex of The last terms on the right hand sides in both forces are due
opposite circulation, the force for the airfoil is given by: to mutual interactions between the free vortices. For each pair
36 C. Bai, Z. Wu

i, j with i j, Cj Ci yj  yi =r2ij Ci Cj yi  yj =r2ji 0 holds, and vs) along this contour remains the same whether the vor-
hence: tices outside of this contour are bound (xed) or free.
8 For the problem considered here, the pressure is related to
>
>
> qCb X M
yj  yb Cj
the velocity through the unsteady Bernoulli equation
> L qV1 Cb 
>
< 2p j1 xj  xb 2 yj  yb 2 1
p /t  u2 v2 C. The only difference between the
>
> qCb XM
xj  xb Cj 2
>
>
: D  2p
>
x  xb 2 yj  yb 2
pressure along the contour oB for an outside FV and an
j1 j outside BV, both supposed to have a circulation C which in-
which can be more conveniently written as: duces a velocity potential / = Ch/(2p), comes from the term
8 /t. We have /t 0 for an outside FV and /t = 0 for an outside
> L qV1 us Cb BV. However, for a closed curve oB not enclosing this BV or
>
> H
>
> FV, we always have @B!0 /n  dl 0 (n is the unit outward
>
> X M
Cj yj  yb
>
> us
>
> 2 2 normal and l is a vector along the tangent direction) since
< j1 2pxj  xb yj  yb 
Generalized KJb the potential /, which is due to an outside vortex, has no sin-
>
> D qvs Cb gularity inside oB. Therefore, there is no difference in the inte-
>
>
>
> grated force due to this term. Moreover, this term is linear so
>
> X M
>
> Cj xj  xb that the conclusions still hold when there are many other out-
>
: vs q
j1 2px j  xb 2 yj  yb 2  side vortices (BV or FV).
7 Hence the integrated forces, along the contour oB, are the
same if some of the free vortices outside of oB are replaced
Here us and vs are exactly the horizontal and vertical veloc- by bound ones. This means that the force formula Eq. (7) still
ity components, at the location of the bound vortex, induced holds for each airfoil individually in the presence of other air-
by all the free vortices. The formulas Eq. (7) are thus an exten- foils represented by bound vortices. Now we can write the
sion of the generalized KuttaJoukowski theorem Eq. (2) to above force formulas for a multi-airfoil case. For the ith
the case of multiple free vortices. Remark that by using the airfoil,
Blasius equation based on complex variables and using Resi-
due theorem, Wu et al.10 obtained a similar force formula (
Lb;i qV1 us;i  i
for the case without bound vortex. Generalized KJc 8
Db;i qvs;i  i
3. Multiple airfoils with multiple free vortices where us,i = ub,i + uf,i and vs,i = vb,i + vf,i are the total
induced velocity components at the ith airfoil due to other
As displayed in Fig. 1, we consider N airfoils (assumed non- airfoils and free vortices. Here:
rotating and xed in this paper) interacting with M free vorti-
ces of given circulation Cm with m = 1, 2,   , M. The nth air- XN
yn  yi XN
xn  xi
foil at location xnb ; ynb has an unperturbed circulation Cb,n, ub;i  n; vb;i  n 9
n1;ni
2pr2in n1;ni
2pr2in
i.e., a circulation in an oncoming uniform ow without other
airfoils, supposed to be known from traditional theories. and
For a single airfoil with a bound vortex (BV) interacting
with a number of free vortices (FVs), we have proved, without X
M
ym  yb;i X
M
xm  xb;i
working with pressure, the force formula Eq. (7). Hence using uf;i Cm ; vf;i  Cm 10
m1
2pr2im m1
2pr2im
pressure integration along the bound vortex (namely, a con-
tour oB of vanishing size just enclosing the bound vortex For the ith airfoil,  i is the perturbed circulation of the
and excluding the free vortices) also leads to the same formula. bound vortex, that is circulation of the bound vortex
The instantaneous ow pattern (thus the induced velocities us subjected to inuence of outside vortices and bodies. The
circulation of the bound vortex without perturbation of
outside vortex is determined by the Kutta condition and
Cb,i = pcAiV1sin(ai + /Bi), in which cAi is the chord length
and /Bi is the zero lift angle of attack. When there are outside
vortices, supposed to be far enough so that the lumped vortex
assumption holds true, then the local freestream velocity must
q
be modied to be VL;i V1 us;i 2 v2s;i and the local
angle of attack ai changed to ai + as,i (as,i is the effective angle
of attack) with tan as,i = vs,i/(V1 + us,i), then we may write
for each i the perturbed circulation:

VL;i sinai as;i uBi

i  Cb;i 11
V1 sinai uBi
Eqs. (9)(11) now form a closed system to give the required
 i and us,i, vs,i for obtaining the forces through Eq. (8), and can
Fig. 1 A system with multiple free vortices and multiple airfoils. be solved simply using an iterative process.
Generalized KuttaJoukowski theorem for multi-vortex and multi-airfoil ow (a lumped vortex model) 37

Under lumped vortex assumption we may assume us,i, vs,i to with the exact solution by Crowdy, provided the distance
be small compared to V1, hence we obtain a system of N lin- between the two cylinders is large enough (so that lumped vor-
earized equations for solving  i . In this case: tex assumption holds). In Appendix B, we study the Wagner
 i pcAi V1 us;i ai vs;i =V1 /Bi 12 problem which is for an impulsively started airfoil with vortex
shedding. With the present method and with the shed vortex
For vertically aligned airfoils without considering free vorti- represented by a single vortex starting at the trailing edge,
ces, we have vs,i = 0 and as,i = 0, so that  i Cb;i 1 us;i =V1 , we obtain quickly the force formula which compare well with
and then we have from Eqs. (9) and (12): Wagner exact solution.
X
N For problems with body vortex interactions, which may
Cb;i
i   n Cb;i 13 occur in many applications, the fast and easy identication
n1;ni
2pV1 yn  yi of the role of each individual vortex on the lift and drag is very
important for correct interpretation of the physics of ow. A
Similarly, for horizontally aligned airfoils without consider-
typical example is the role of leading edge vortex.
ing free vortices, we have us,i = 0 and  i Cb;i pcAi ms;i , and
For multibody and multivortex ows, an exact but explicit
then:
force evaluation for each individual body is usually very com-
X
N plicated. Sometimes we must use numerical computation to do
cAi
i  n Cb;i 14 this. However, using the present method, we may be able to
n1;ni
2xn  xi obtain force formulas without much effort and these force for-
mulas may have an accuracy for qualitative study. This could
be useful in engineering applications.
4. Applications and conclusion
According to Appendix A, the evaluated force is accurate
only when the distance between the bodies is large enough.
Under lumped vortex assumption, for which an airfoil is rep- This is due to the lumped vortex assumption, for which the
resented by a bound vortex at the center of the airfoil, we have shape of the body and image vortices are ignored. The study
extended the KuttaJoukowski theorem to the case of multiple of force formulas without lumped vortex assumption has also
airfoils with multiple free vortices. The advantage of the pres- been carried out. For more details, see Appendix C.
ent result is that one can rst work with each airfoil individu-
ally, and then add interaction through the use of algebraic Eqs.
(8)(14). As discussed below, the usefulness of the present re- Acknowledgement
sults lies in easy identication of the role of outside vortices
and fast evaluation of approximate forces for relative complex This work was supported by National Basic Research Program
problems. of China (2012CB720205).
With the lift force formula Eqs. (8)(10), we may identify
the role of each free vortex. First consider the case when the
free vortex is far enough from the airfoil, so that  i  Cb;i Appendix A. Crowdy two-cylinder example
(which means that the circulation of the bound vortex is not
perturbed by the free vortex). Then, if the bound vortex and Crowdy7 considered a potential ow for two vertically aligned
the outside free vortex have opposite sign, the induced velocity circular airfoils (i = 1 for the lower airfoil and i = 2 for the
by a free vortex yields a lift increase if this free vortex is above upper one) separated by a distance h with unit diameter, den-
the airfoil, and a lift decrease when it is below; moreover, it in- sity, and velocity (q = cA = V1 = 1) and with xed circula-
duces a drag if it is downstream of the airfoil, and propulsion if tions Cb,1 = Cb,2 = 5. When h is large enough, the circular
it is upstream of the airfoil. cylinders can be represented by lumped vortices so that the
If the bound and free vortices have the same sign, then the present method applies. In the case of xed circulations, the
induced velocity by the free vortex yields a lift decrease if this use of Eqs. (8)(10) yields:
vortex is above the airfoil, and a lift increase when it is below;
8  
moreover, it induces a propulsion if it is downstream of the air- > 1 25
>
> L q 1 Cb;2 Cb;1 5 
foil, and drag if it is upstream of the airfoil. < b;1 2ph 2ph
The above analysis may not be true when the lumped   A1
>
> 1 25
vortex assumption is not violated. For instance, in the case >
: Lb;2 q 1  Cb;1 Cb;2 5
of a leading edge vortex very close to the airfoil so that the 2ph 2ph
airfoil can not be simplied by a lumped vortex, the in-
duced ow eld is nonlinear and image vortex effect can If the circulations of the bound vortices are allowed to vary
not be neglected, the strength of the bound vortex will be according to Eq. (13) due to satisfaction of the Kutta condi-
signicantly increased according to more elaborated studies Cb;1 Cb;2
tion, then  1   2 Cb;1 and  2  1 Cb;2 , which
not presented here. 2ph 2ph
For fast evaluation of forces, we consider two examples. can be solved to give:
One is the two-cylinder example of Crowdy, with given bound 8   1
vortices. The other is the classical Wagner problem. For both >
> 5 5 5
>
>  1 5 1  1 
examples, it is extremely complicated to obtain explicit force < 2ph 2ph 2ph
formulas using known theories.   1 A2
>
> 5 5 5
In Appendix A, we use Eqs. (8)(10) to obtain the forces for >
>
:  2 5 1 1 
both cylinders. We remark that the lift forces compare well 2ph 2ph 2ph
38 C. Bai, Z. Wu

where C1 = pcAV1a is the circulation of the bound vortex

when the starting vortex has moved innitely downstream to
the airfoil. Then, with Eq. (7), the lift and (induced) drag are
found to be:
8  1
>
> 1
>
> L 1 L1
< 1 2V1 t=cA
>  1
>
> q 1
>
:D 1 C21
Fig. A1 Lift forces on each airfoil for the un-staggered biplane pcA 2pV1 t 1 2V1 t=cA
conguration.
where L1 = qV1C1a is the nal lift after a steady state is
reached. Thus at t = 0, we have:
According to the force formulas Eqs. (8)(10), which are re- 8
> 1
1 < L L1
duced here to Fb;1 q1 Cb;2  1 and Fb;2 q 2
2ph
1 : D p cA V2 a2
>
1
1  Cb;1  2 , we have: 4
2ph
8     1 Thus even with the lumped vortex approximation we can
>
> 5 5 5 5 recover the well known results of Wagner (see Refs. 11,14) that
>
> F 1  5 1  1 
< b;1
2ph 2ph 2ph 2ph for an impulsively starting ow of a at plate, the initial lift is
    1 A3 exactly one-half of the nal lift (the Wagner effect) and the ini-
>
> 5 5 5 5
>
> p
: Fb;2 1 5 1 1  tial drag is D cA V21 a2 . Hence the lumped vortex approach,
2ph 2ph 2ph 2ph 4
though approximate but quite simpler to use than the Wagner
The lift forces as a function of h are displayed in Fig. A1.
approach based on the Laplace transform, gives reasonably
When h > 3, the present result (see Curve b in Fig. A1)
good results even for the initial behavior. We remark that
determined by Eq. (A1) compares well with that of Crowdy
the initial lift has also been studied for airfoils with thickness
(see Curve c in Fig. A1), in the case of xed circulations. When
effect (see Refs. 14,15).
h < 3, for which the cylinders can no longer be represented by
lumped vortices, the present theory is no longer valid. When
the circulations are allowed to depend on the distance accord- Appendix C. Extension of the results
ing to Eq. (A3), the lift forces (see Curve a in Fig. A1) are high-
er than those given by the xed circulation model.
By using a special momentum approach and with the help of
interchange between singularity velocity and induced ow
Appendix B. Wagner problem velocity, we have recently derived in a physical way the explicit
force formulas for two-dimensional inviscid ow involving
Consider the well-known problem of Wagner13, which is the multiple bound and free vortices, multiple airfoils and vortex
initial lift for a at plate of length cA, set instantaneously into production16, without use of lumped vortex assumption so that
motion with a constant velocity V1 and at a small angle of at- the force formulas are exact for arbitrary distance between
tack a. For this problem, an accurate and thus mathematically bodies. As in the present work, these new force formulas hold
difcult solution is required to consider a vortex sheet down- individually for each airfoil thus allowing for force decompo-
stream to the trailing edge. Here we consider the lumped vor- sition and the contributions to forces from singularities (such
tex approximation, by assuming a bound vortex of circulation as bound and image vortices, sources and doublets) and bodies
Cb(t) at x = xb, the center of the plate, and a starting vortex of out of an airfoil are related to their induced velocities at the
circulation Ca(t) = Cb(t) downstream to the airfoil at x = xs. location of singularities inside this airfoil. The force contribu-
The velocity induced at x = xb by the starting vortex is tion due to vortex production will related to the vortex produc-
Cs t tion rate and the distance between each pair of vortices in
us ; vs 0;  . Hence according to Eq. (12),
2pxs  xb production. For the Crowdy example, the comparison will
  be good even the distance between the two cylinders is small.
Cs t
Cb pcA V1 a We remark that force formulas for multibody problems and
2pV1 xs  xb in the form of induced velocities have been also studied by
 
Cb t Wu et al.10 They followed Lagally theorem to obtain the forces
pcA V1 a
2pV1 xs  xb and their results are restricted to problems without bound vor-
tices and without vortex production. The results of Bai et al.16,
If at the initial time t = 0, we assume the starting vortex is just
which are obtained through a different approach, are more
at the trailing edge (xs(0) = cA)and the bound vortex is at the
general since bound vortex and vortex production are
1
center of the airfoil xb cA , and then with dxs/dt = V1 considered.
2
and thus xs = cA + V1t, the above equation can be solved to
give: References
 1  1
cA 1 1. Batchelor FRS. An introduction to uid dynamics. Cam-
Cb t 1 C1 1 C1 bridge: Cambridge University Press; 1967.
2xs  xb 1 2V1 t=cA
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12. Kanso E, Oskouei BG. Stability of a coupled body-vortex system.
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Bai Chenyuan is a Ph.D. student of Fluid Mechanics and Aerody-
namics in the School of Aerospace Engineering at Tsinghua Univer-
sity. Her main interest is vortex dynamics for aerodynamic.
Wu Ziniu is a professor of Fluid Mechanics in the School of Aerospace
Engineering at Tsinghua University. His main interests are vortex
dynamics, shock dynamics. He with his students obtained a number of
analytical results for vortex ow and shock ow, with 10 papers
published in Journal of Fluid Mechanics during the years 20062013.