Unsteady pitching flat plates

Direct force measurements and qualitative flow visualization were used to compare flow field evolution versus lift and drag for a nominally two-dimensional rigid flat plate executing smoothed linear pitch ramp manoeuvres in a water tunnel. Non-dimensional pitch rate was varied from 0.01 to 0.5, incidence angle from 0 to 90 degrees, and pitch pivot point from the leading to the trailing edge. For low pitch rates, the main unsteady effect is delay of stall beyond the steady incidence angle. Shifting the time base to account for different pivot points leads to collapse of both lift/drag history and flow field history. For higher rates, a leading edge vortex forms; its history also depends on pitch pivot point, but linear shift in time base is not successful in collapsing lift/drag history. Instead, a phenomenological algebraic relation, valid at the higher pitch rates, accounts for lift and drag for different rates and pivot points, through at least 45 degrees incidence angle.