Simulation of Wake Vortex Detection with Airborne Doppler Lidar

Abstract

A simulation approach is used to demonstrate that an airborne, forward-looking lidar can detect trailing wake vortices generated by a leading aircraft. Computational e uid dynamics techniques are used to generated e owe elds containing wakevortices.Thesee owe eldsareappliedtoaDopplerlidarsimulation model.Thesimulated geometry hastheforward-lookinglidarmountedonafollowingaircraft,whereasthewakevorticesaregeneratedbyaleading aircraft. In such a cone guration, it is not possible to directly detect the strong rotational velocity components of a wake vortex with a Doppler system; detection relies on the presence of induced axial velocity signatures. We demonstrate that axial e ows are induced as the vortices evolve, and that these axial e ows can be detected with a Doppler lidar system.