UNSTEADY-FLOW PHENOMENA OVER DELTA-WINGS AT HIGH-ANGLE OF ATTACK

Experiments show that coherent pressure fluctuations observed on delta wings are due to the helical mode instability of the vortex breakdown flowfield. No dominant frequency in the spectra of pressure fluctuati ons on the wing surface was observed after the breakdown reached the a pex of the wing, although the vortex shedding could be detected in the wake. Measurements of pressure fluctuations at different streamwise l ocations on the wing suggest that the dimensionless frequency fx/U-inf inity, is nearly constant for a given geometry, which implies increasi ng wavelength in the streamwise direction. For different wings, this n ondimensionaI frequency is shown to be a function of nondimensional ci rculation Gamma/U(infinity)x only. Both the wavelength of the disturba nces and the core radius increase with the nondimensional circulation at a fixed streamwise location. The wavelength normalized by the core radius is around 3-4, which is much smaller than the predictions for t he e vortex.