Aerospace Science and Technology 47 (2015) 210215

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Aerospace Science and Technology

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An improved micro-vortex generator in supersonic ows

Binbin Zhang a,b , Qingjun Zhao a,c, , Xiaorong Xiang a , Jianzhong Xu a
a
b
c

Institute of Engineering Thermophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China

University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China
Key Laboratory of Light-duty Gas-turbine, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China

a r t i c l e

i n f o

Article history:
Received 27 January 2014
Received in revised form 6 September 2015
Accepted 27 September 2015
Available online 3 October 2015
Keywords:
Micro-ramp
Shock-boundary layer interaction
Passive control

a b s t r a c t
The micro-vortex generator has currently received much attention as a passive ow control device in
supersonic ow. This paper investigates the induced velocity and the trajectory of the vortices generated
by micro-vortex generators by using the point vortex model. The analysis suggests that counter-rotating
vortices could adversely affect each other and this effect depends on the distance of the counter-rotating
vortices. A novel micro-ramp for boundary layer control, called dissymmetric micro-ramp, was put
forward on the basis of this analysis. The effect the dissymmetric micro-ramp was numerically studied
at a free stream Mach number of 2.5 via RANS simulations. The vortices generated by these devices have
similar path and dissipation with the ones generated by traditional devices. There is a constant drop
of vorticity in the development and dissipation of these vortices. The vorticity in dissymmetric microramps is stronger than that in standard micro-ramp. On the other hand, the vortex height from wall in
dissymmetric micro-ramps is smaller than in standard micro-ramp. This effect also suggests that vortex
in dissymmetric micro-ramp is apt to maintain in boundary layer.
2015 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
The shock wave/boundary-layer interaction (SWBLI) is a common phenomenon in the supersonic ow eld such as supersonic
engine inlet and it has been a cause of concern to the aerospace
industry. The interactions could change the shock wave structure
and the strong adverse gradients induced by shock could accelerate the boundary layer developing. Interactions between boundary
layer and shock waves also distort the velocity prole in boundary
layer. These distortions increase the possibility of separation and
reduce total pressure recovery. The use of boundary-layer suction
is a traditional controlling technique and the low momentum uid
in boundary layer is removed by a suction system such as porous
sections, slots, or scoops. These techniques have been proved to
be effective, but result in reduced mass ow and increased system
weight.
Vortex generators are particularly interesting among the multitude of ow control methods. Compared with suction system,
vortex generators have the following advantages [1,2]. First, the
vortex generators are passive control methods and no additional
hardware is required. Second, the vortex generators will not cause

Corresponding author at: Institute of Engineering Thermophysics, Chinese

Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China.
E-mail address: zhaoqingjun@iet.cn (Q. Zhao).
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ast.2015.09.029
1270-9638/ 2015 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.

a decrease in mass ow rate and additional performance penalty

[3]. So, vortex generators have more potential than the suction system. Traditional vortex generators [4] which have the same order
of magnitude with boundary layer thickness have been used in
supersonic ow control for a long time. Researchers subsequently
found that vortex generators which have smaller scale than boundary layer thickness have the advantage of smaller resistance while
maintaining the ability of ow control [5,6]. In recent years, microvortex generators have obtained the full attention and development [79]. Anderson et al. [10] used Reynolds-averaged Navier
Stokes method to conrm that micro-vortex generators have the
similar ability to suction system and also have the advantage of
physical robustness. The vortices induced by micro-vortex generators were validated experimentally by Pitt-Ford and et al. [11].
The main function of these vortices is to accelerate the mixing
effect between the higher-momentum external ow and the lowermomentum ow near the wall.
This paper presents a novel micro-ramp called dissymmetric
micro-ramp, the vortex structure and the trajectory of the vortices
generated by these two micro-ramps are compared. This investigation seeks to understand how the development of the vortices
generated by different micro-ramps differs and gain more insight
into the impact of vortices on the boundary layer. In addition,
this paper estimates the inuence of the two micro-ramps on
the pressure distribution of the interaction zone and incompress-

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211

Nomenclature

H
c
S
L

micro-ramp angle of incidence

micro-ramp height
micro-ramp side length
micro-ramp spanwise spacing
dissymmetric micro-ramp length

w
Hi

W
Z

micro-ramp spanwise width

boundary layer incompressible shape factor
circulation of vortex
complex velocity potential of vortex
coordinate of vortex

Fig. 3. Grid topology for the micro-ramp domain.

Fig. 1. 3D illustration of the micro-ramp and the dissymmetric micro-ramp.

Fig. 2. Computational domain setup for shock wave/boundary layer interaction with
micro-vortex generators control.

ible shape factor of boundary layer downstream the interaction

zone.
2. Computational model and methodology
This paper is targeted at micro-ramps and dissymmetric microramps, as shown in Fig. 1. There were three objects in this study,
namely: (1) to present a new micro-vortex generator, (2) to investigate the ow characteristics of vorticity induced by microvortex generators, and (3) to evaluate the effectiveness of microvortex generator array ow control. The CFD solver used in the
present study is commercial software CFX by solving the 3D compressible Reynolds-averaged NavierStokes equations. The governing equations are discretized using the nite element framework.
The RANS closure used is Menters hybrid k /k model
[12] in its shear-stress transport forms. The simulated condition
involving the effects of micro-vortex generators on shock interaction control have been shown in Fig. 2. A 7 degree wedge angle
is setup to generate an oblique shock wave and a micro-vortex
generator array is arranged upstream of the shock wave/boundary
layer interaction zone. The height of the micro-vortex generator
(H ) is set to 70% of the boundary layer thickness (B) at the position of the micro-device. The distance of the micro-device and
the shock wave/boundary layer interaction zone is 25 times of the
boundary layer thickness B. A nominal Mach number of 2.5, a
stagnation temperature of 280 K, a total pressure of 380 000 Pa,
and a Reynolds number of 3 107 are taken as inlet conditions.
The ow eld of shock wave/boundary layer interaction with
micro-ramp is simulated by using CFX software. The simulated

Fig. 4. Inow boundary layer prole and comparison with simulation results.

conditions are the same experimentally investigated by Babinsky in

Ref. [1]. The numerical results are compared with the experimental data to invalidate the accuracy and reliability of the numerical
methods in this paper. The computational mesh is generated by
Gambit software, mesh renement is processed besides the wall.
The topological structure of mesh is shown in Fig. 3.
Fig. 4 is the comparison of boundary layer internal velocity prole between simulation results and experimental values. It
suggests that the simulation results are accordance with the experimental values. As shown in Fig. 5, the experimental values
of near wall velocity distribution are compared with the simulation results. It suggests that the near wall velocity distribution
of experimental values is approximately same with simulation results.
3. Results
3.1. Micro-vortex generator structure
Fig. 1(a) shows the micro-ramps device where the height of the
device is given by h, the chord by c, and the half-angle of the span
by . The micro-ramp is scaled according to Anderson and et al.
[10], the half-angle is equal to 24 degrees, the side length c is
7.2 times of the device height h, and the span spacing s is 7.5 times
of h. The novel dissymmetric micro-ramp is shown in Fig. 1(b), the
length L is 7 times of the device height H , the span length W is 3
times of H , and the span spacing S is 7.5 times of H .

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B. Zhang et al. / Aerospace Science and Technology 47 (2015) 210215

Fig. 5. The comparison of near wall velocity distribution.

3.2. Characteristic of vorticity

Fig. 6. Vortex structure of vorticity induced by micro-vortex generators.

Fig. 3 shows vortex structure of vorticity induced by the different micro-ramps. Fig. 6(a) illustrates the vorticity of micro-ramp
and each micro-ramp induces a co-rotating vortex pair. Fig. 6(b)
suggested that each dissymmetric micro-ramp induces a single
vortex structure, and dissymmetric micro-ramp array induces a
vortex array whose rotation direction is the same.
Fig. 7 shows vorticity value of vortex induced by the two microramps at different streamwise distances, it suggests the development of the vorticity downstream of the micro-vortex generators.
The graph on the left and right represents four sections as the
streamwise distance increases gradually, the red and blue parts in
the graph indicate positive and negative values of the streamwise
vorticity, respectively. Horizontal comparisons of the gures represent the vorticity values after the same micro-vortex generator
at different streamwises distance, and it illustrates that vorticity
intensity decreases continuously in the process of vortex development and dissipation. Vertical comparisons of the gures represent
the vorticity values at the same streamwise distance after different
micro-vortex generators, and it shows that the vorticity intensity
value of vortex after dissymmetric micro-ramp is obviously larger
than the one after micro-ramp. This suggests that the interaction
between the vortex array induced by dissymmetric micro-ramps is
weaker than the interaction between the co-rotating vortex pair
induced by micro-ramps.

the vortex pair induced by micro-ramp at the same streamwise

location. The smaller vortex core height is helpful to keep the vortex within the boundary layer over a longer period of time and
space and helpful to control the shock wave/boundary layer interaction.
To accurately estimate and explain the trajectory of a vortex and the effect of neighboring vortices, the vortex induced by
the vortex generator is regarded as a vortex model. Fig. 9(a) and
Fig. 9(b) show the co-rotating vortex pair induced by micro-ramp
array and the vortex array induced by the dissymmetric microramp array, respectively. Firstly, let us assume this real vortex
induced by the vortex generator as a point vortex model. The complex velocity potential of multiple point vortices is:

W (Z) =

2 i

a ln( Z Z a ),

(1)

a =1

where a is the circulation of the a-th vortex, and Z a is the coordinate of the a-th vortex. The vortex array induced by the dissymmetric micro-ramp array consists of multiple vortices which have
the same direction of rotation, equal intensity and equal distance.
The complex velocity of this vortex array is:

W (Z) =

3.3. Characteristic of vortex trajectory

The vortex core height from the wall increases continuously after the vortex shed from the micro-vortex generator as the streamwise distance increases. The axis coordinate of the vortex core
could be estimated from the upwash and downwash location in
the velocity contour. Fig. 8 shows the development of the vortex induced by different micro-vortex generators and their vortex
core height. The abscissa and ordinate, both processed dimensionlessly by the height of micro-vortex generator, represent the
streamwise distance from the micro-vortex generator and the vortex core height respectively. The graph indicates that the height of
co-rotating vortex pair induced by micro-ramp is growing rapidly
in a certain range (x/ H < 10). It continues to rise after this range,
albeit modestly. The vortex induced by dissymmetric micro-ramp
increases at nearly constant speed and the height is smaller than

N
1 

N


2 i

ln sin

a =1

Z
a

(2)

where is the circulation of the point vortex, and a is the spacing

of the vortices. The vortex array induced by the micro-ramp array
could be regarded as two vortex arrays, each of them consists of
multiple vortices which have the same direction of rotation, equal
intensity and equal distance. The complex velocity potential of this
vortex array is:

W (Z) =

N


2 i

a =1

ln

sin a+Zb
sin

( Z a)

(3)

a+b

where the circulation of the two vortex arrays is and respectively, the spacing of the two vortex arrays is a and the spacing
of the two vortices in the same array is a + b.
After derivation of the above complex potential, we can get the
induced velocity of a point vortex induced by the others in the

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213

Fig. 7. Vorticity value of vortices generated by the micro-ramp and the dissymmetric micro-ramp. (For interpretation of the references to color in this gure legend, the
reader is referred to the web version of this article.)

crease much slower than the vortices induced by micro-ramps.

This is consistent with the numerical results mentioned before.
3.4. Oblique shock wave/boundary layer interaction

Fig. 8. The vortex core height above the wall of the vortices generated by the microvortex generators.

vortex array. The induced velocities of the vortices generated by

dissymmetric micro-ramps and micro-ramps are:

u0 i v 0 =

dZ

W (Z)

2 i


ctg

2 i

Z
a

ln Z
Z =0

Z =0

= 0,

(4)

and

u0 i v 0 =

d 
dZ

W (Z)

2 i a + b

Z =a

ctg

Z
a+b



a
=
ctg
i
2(a + b)
a+b

Z =a

(5)

Its obvious to know that a = 0, v = ; a = b, v = 0; b = 0,

v = in the induced velocity of vortex generated by the microramp. So the vortices induced by dissymmetric micro-ramp in-

Fig. 10 shows the surface pressure distribution at the impinged

shock wave/boundary layer interaction zone. It suggests that the
starting point of pressure risen is moved ahead compared to the
situation without micro-vortex generator control. This represents
the starting point of the forward motion of the interaction zone
and the area of interaction zone is enlarged. It moderates the pressure rise in the interaction zone and is helpful to boundary layer
to resist separation.
Fig. 11 shows boundary layer displacement thickness and momentum thickness along spanwise distribution at the streamwise
location x/ H = 60, with different micro-vortex generator controls.
Both boundary layer displacement thickness and momentum thickness are larger than the average value at the spanwise middle position. Table 1 shows the boundary layer incompressible shape factor
downstream of shock wave/boundary layer interaction. The boundary layer incompressible shape factor (H i ) is the ratio of boundary
layer displacement thickness and momentum thickness, and is a
measure of ow distortion in the normal direction. The smaller the
shape factor, the more stable boundary layer goes. So its a good
indicator of ow control effectiveness, low values of shape factors
indicate a healthy boundary layer and able to resist separation. The
values in Table 1 suggest that boundary layer incompressible shape
factor with micro-vortex generator is smaller than without control, and the shape factor with dissymmetric micro-ramp control is
smaller than with micro-ramp control. These results show that the
micro-vortex generator array does indeed improve the boundary
layer health downstream of the shock wave/boundary layer interaction and is helpful to resist boundary layer separation, effect of
dissymmetric micro-ramp is more obvious and helpful than microramp.

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B. Zhang et al. / Aerospace Science and Technology 47 (2015) 210215

Fig. 9. The point vortex model induced by the micro-vortex generators.

Fig. 10. Surface pressure distribution at the shock wave/boundary layer interaction
zone.
Table 1
Boundary layer incompressible shape factor downstream
of shock wave/boundary layer interaction.
Hi
No control
Micro-ramp
Dissymmetric micro-ramp

1.47
1.43
1.40

4. Conclusion
This paper presents a novel micro-vortex generator called dissymmetric micro-ramp for boundary layer control in supersonic
ow. The micro-vortex generators could ameliorate the velocity
prole in the boundary layer and decrease the boundary layer
shape factor downstream of the shock wave/boundary layer interaction zone. The vorticity induced by the micro-vortex generator increases the mixing of the higher-momentum ow out of
the boundary layer and the lower-momentum ow near the wall.
The dissipation of vortex induced by dissymmetric micro-ramp is

Fig. 11. Parameter of boundary layer downstream of shock wave/boundary layer interaction.

weaker than the one induced by micro-ramp. Besides, the rise of

vortex core induced by dissymmetric micro-ramp is slower than
the one induced by micro-ramp. This effect will reduce the possibility of boundary layer separation by maintaining the vortex in
the boundary layer.

B. Zhang et al. / Aerospace Science and Technology 47 (2015) 210215

Conict of interest statement

No conicts of interests.
Acknowledgements
The authors gratefully acknowledge the support of National Basic Research Program of China (No. 2010CB227302) and National
Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 51206162).
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