Space Grant Consortium - University of Wisconsin - Green Bay

Abstract
Analysis of Circulation Properties in Wake Vortices
Vanessa L. Peterson
University of Wisconsin- Madison
Wake vortices are created as flying aircraft wing tips disrupt the surrounding air. These vortices
can become quite dangerous to other aircraft that encounter them at low speeds. Lidar systems
are us ed t o analyze t he w ind s peeds i n these vortices to c ollect d ata and f rom th is d ata,
theoretical m odels h ave b een cr eated t o p redict t heir characteristics. H owever, t here ar e s till
some d iscrepancies b etween t he an alytical m odels an d t he ex perimental d ata co llected w hich
question th e r eliability of th e a nalytical mo dels. The p urpose o f t his p roject w as t o cr eate a
program to analyze the experimental results of data collected by lidar on the circulation strength
of wake vortices as they decay. This research allows for the possibility of comparison between
analytical and experimental data collected on wake vortices and has the opportunity to increase
confidence levels of wake vortex models and lidar simulator tools.
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