THE IMPACT OF ATMOSPHERIC STABILITY ON HELICAL WAKE BEHIND A ROTATING BLADE: THE PHYSICS OF HELICAL VORTEX CORE IN PHYSICAL SPACE. (PART 1)

Authors

  • N.M. Zahari
  • L. Gan Durham University, UK
  • X. Mao Durham University, UK

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.54554/jmet.2026.18.01.010

Keywords:

Wake Flow, Helical Wake Flow, Wind Turbine Wake Flow, Atmospheric Thermal Stability, Vortex Identification

Abstract

As wakes can be damaging to wind turbine structures and detrimental to their power generation, it is essential to study the wake development to prevent the undesirable wake impacts. A fundamental study on the breakdown mechanisms of a helical flow is conducted where the helical flow shares common traits with the wind turbine wake flow. The simulation data generated by a Direct Numerical Simulation (DNS) of flow around a rotating blade in a thermally stratified atmosphere were analyzed to investigate the impact of atmospheric thermal stability on wind-turbine wakes. A few of vortex identification techniques were presented, and the decision to carry out the following study using the vorticity magnitude,  was made. There is some interesting characteristics of the wake flow identified, such as its deformation/distortion, vorticity dynamics, vortex breakdown, and the centroid of the cores. All these analyses were focused only on the tip vortices.

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Published

2026-06-30

How to Cite

Zahari, N., L. Gan, & X. Mao. (2026). THE IMPACT OF ATMOSPHERIC STABILITY ON HELICAL WAKE BEHIND A ROTATING BLADE: THE PHYSICS OF HELICAL VORTEX CORE IN PHYSICAL SPACE. (PART 1) . Journal of Mechanical Engineering and Technology (JMET), 18(1), 90–101. https://doi.org/10.54554/jmet.2026.18.01.010

Issue

Vol. 18 No. 1 (2026)

Section

Structure and Material Engineering

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