Copyright© 1997, American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Inc.

Unsteady Flow Over a Hemisphere in Ground Effect

Sanjay Kumarasamy1 and Jewel B Barlow
University of Maryland, College Park

Abstract • To measure the steady state pressure distribution

around the body, floor and on the sting mount.
Results of measurements of forces and pressures on a
hemisphere in the vicinity of a plane wall are presented.
Some comparisons are given to similar results for a two 1.0 Experimental Arrangement
dimensional half cylinder.
The model was a 10" diameter hemisphere supported by a
sting with a diameter of 1.9" and a length of 37.25". The
Introduction vertical support was a tube with a diameter of 1.9" whose
height could be varied almost continuously (Fig. (1)). The
The present study constitutes the second step of a program
in which we are analyzing the effect of a plane surface on
the unsteady shedding behind bluff bodies. The motivation
is to look at situations that are in some way similar to auto-
mobile side view mirrors. During the first phase the flow
over a half circular cylinder in close proximity to a plane
wall was investigated1'2. The acoustic radiation from the
half circular cylinder has also been studied2. I——38.375-

For the half circular cylinder, there is typical Strouhal 10.0

shedding over a wide range of Reynolds numbers when 2.000 J 2.000-

the cylinder is in an otherwise unbounded flow. As the cyl-

inder is brought near a plane surface, the organized shed- BUIW L. lUflTIN WIKD MMKII
-"sts.-wsw.jau-"
ding disappears for height to diameter (H/D) ratios less
than about 0.33. Another salient fact about the half circu-
lar cylinder is that the drag decreases as the body is
brought close to a plane wall.
In this second phase we are beginning the study of
three dimensional bodies in ground effect. The following
were the objectives of the test for which results are 5- (1/2 D)

reported in this paper:

• To find out whether there is a periodic shedding for the
flow over a hemisphere. 5' <1/2 D)

• To identify the critical gap ratio if there is any.

• To measure the aerodynamic forces for various gap OLBW L. KUTTIN WIND TWNI
-••BVS.-UHR.JK& -"
ratios.

Fig. 1 Model Arrangement and Pressure Tap

1. Research Associate, GLM Wind Tunnel, Now with General Motors Locations
Corp., Member AIAA
2. Associate Professor, Aerospace Engineering, Associate Fellow, AIAA
 Copyright© 1997, American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Inc.

pressure tap locations on the hemisphere and on the sting To reduce the effect of Reynolds number, a trip strip was
are shown by Fig. 1 and Fig. 2. applied to the hemisphere. The effect of the trip strip was
determined from oil flow investigations. A sample is
shown on Fig. 4. The flow remains attached to the edge of

5/8' (1X2 D - 3/B')

CLOW L. HARTIH VIHD TUWII

•

I1"'111!

-6.5'——|
-'•'• I

Fig. 2 Pressure Tap Locations - Model

There are 33 taps on the body (17 on the hemisphere

and 16 on the base) and 12 taps on the sting. The floor con-
tains 16 taps. High speed transducers are attached to the
Fig. 4 Effect of Trip Strip on Separation - Upper
taps which are located on the top, bottom, left and right Photo without Trip, Lower Photo with Trip
edges of the back plate. Boundary layer surveys were
made using a Keel probe at the location shown by Fig. 3.
the base when the trip strip is present for the range of Rey-
nolds numbers used in this test series.
Keel Probe Location

2.0 Lift and Drag

Both lift and drag increase as the distance from the hemi-
sphere to the ground plane is decreased. The variation is
shown by Fig. 5 and Fig. 6. There are two curves on each
figure labelled "Uncorrected" and "Corrected. The correc-
tion in this case is the tare on the exposed post and sting.
The amount of exposed post decreases as the ground clear-
ance or height decreases so the correction decreases as the
height decreases. The effect of the ground becomes signif-
Fig. 3 Pressure Tap and Boundary Layer Survey icant only at height to diameter ratios less than one. The
Locations on Floor value of the drag coefficient away from ground effect
agrees with classical references. The lift coefficient is
small and positive which is believed to be an effect of the
 Copyright© 1997, American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Inc.

asymmetry of the post which is communicated through the butions show little effect of the height changes until the
low energy wake. height to diameter is less than one.
Voriotion of Lift Coefficient with Height

Fig. 7 Pressure Distribution, H/D = 3.99

Fig. 5 Variation of Lift Coefficient with Height

Fig. 6 Variation of Drag Coefficient with Height

Fig.8 Pressure Distribution, H/D = 3.00

The trend of the forces with height is opposite to that for a

half circular cylinder for which the drag decreases as it is
brought into proximity of a plane wall.

3.0 Time Averaged Pressure

Distributions
As shown by Fig. 1, there are pressure taps in the vertical
plane, in the horizontal plane and on the base of the hemi-
sphere. The following figures 7 through 19 show the time
averaged pressures for these three sets of pressure taps for
a series of heights from four diameters down to zero. As
expected from the force measurements, the pressure distri-

Fig. 9 Pressure Distribution, H/D = 2.50

 Copyright© 1997, American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Inc.

Fig. 10 Pressure Distribution, H/D = 1.98

Fig. 13 Pressure Distribution, H/D = 0.25

Fig. 11 Pressure Distribution, H/D = 1.00 Fig. 14 Pressure Distribution, H/D = 0.10

reference otm.

Fig. 12 Pressure Distribution, H/D = 0.50 Fig. 15 Pressure Distribution, H/D = 0.05
 Copyright© 1997, American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Inc.

Fig. 16 Pressure Distribution, H/D = 0.025 Fig. 19 Pressure Distribution, H/D = 0.000

The distribution of pressure along the central horizontal

plane is virtually unaffected by the changes in height. The
distribution of pressure in the central vertical plane is sub-
stantially affected as the height to diameter goes below
one. The greatest effect is, of course, on the lower half of
the body where the pressures increase as the height
decreases.

The base pressure is -0.36 in the free stream case. As the

height decreases, the base pressure falls slowly to about -
0.50 when the body is near ground contact. This is quite
different from the case of a half circular cylinder for which
the base pressure is about -1.5 at H/D = 0.8 and about -0.8
for H/D = 0.2.

Fig. 17 Pressure Distribution, H/D = 0.012 4.0 Unsteady Pressures

Unsteady pressures were measured using transducers and
tubing connections with a bandwidth of about 1 khz. Four
of these transducers were connected to the taps along the
periphery located at angles 0(Top),90(Right),180(Bottom)
and 270(Left) degrees. Top and bottom pressure signals
were used to calculate the coherence spectrum TB, and left
and right transducers were used to calculate the coherence

Fig. 18 Pressure Distribution, H/D = 0.006

 Copyright© 1997, American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Inc.
spectrum LR. The spectra for four selected heights are
shown by figures 20 through 23.
Spectral Plot Height: 39.875 in. n Spectral Plot Height: 39.675 ii
Fig. 20 Spectra for H/D = 3.99
Spectrol Plot Height: 5.0QO
0 20 40 60 80 100
Fig. 21 Spectra for H/D = 0.50
Spectral Plot Height: 0.500 in.
Fig. 22 Spectra for H/D = 0.05
Fig. 23 Spectra for H/D = 0.000
There is a peak at 40 hz for all the heights which corre-
sponds to a Strouhal Number of 0.227 The peak at 60 hz
Speclrol Plot Height: 5.000 ii
is noise from the power line frequency. The result indi-
cates that there is no critical gap ratio as is found for two
dimensional cylinders ''.
As mentioned in the introductory remarks, the organized
shedding for a half circular cylinder ceases for values of
H/D less than 0.3.
5.0 Discussion
The effect of the proximity of a plane wall on the flow
about a hemisphere has been characterized by a modest set
0 30 40 60 BO 100 of measurements. The results show that there is some
coherent shedding and that this is not suppressed by close
proximity to a plane wall.
There are ongoing investigations on the aeroacoustics of
low mach number flows such as that studied here . We are
applying Lighthill's acoustic analogy which allows the
separation of the problem into an unsteady fluid dynamic
calculation from which acoustic sources are determined
and then an acoustic propagation calculation. Present
efforts are focused on the hemisphere, first in free stream
and then in proximity to a plane surface.
References
1. Kumarasamy, S., BarlowJ.B.,"Interference of Plane
Wall on Periodic Shedding Behind a Half Cylinder",
AIAA Paper 95-2285
2. Kumarasamy, S., "Incompressible Flow Simulation
Over a Half Cylinder with Results Used to Compute Asso-
ciated Acoustic Radiation", Ph.D. Thesis, University of
Maryland, 1995
 Copyright© 1997, American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Inc.

3. Kumarasamy, S., BarlowJ.B.,"Computational Aeroa-

coustics of the Flow over a Half Cylinder", AIAA-96-
0873, 34th Aerospace Sciences Meeting and Exhibit,
Reno, Nevada 1996

4. Kumarasamy, S., Barlow, J.B., "Computation of

Unsteady Flow Over a Half Cylinder Close to a Moving
Wall", Third Colloquium on Bluff Body Aerodynamics
and Applications, Blacksburg, VA, 1996

5. Lighthill,M.J.,"The Bakerian lecture, 1961: Sound gen-

erated aerodynamically", Proc. Roy. Soc. A. 267. p. 1329,
1961.