Airfoil

About: Airfoil is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 24696 publications have been published within this topic receiving 337709 citations. The topic is also known as: aerofoil & wing section.

Transient Separation Control Using Pulse-Combustion Actuation

Abstract: The transitory response of the flow over a stalled, two-dimensional (NACA 4415) airfoil to pulsed actuation on time scales that are an order of magnitude shorter than the characteristic convective time scale is investigated experimentally (Re = 570, 000). Actuation is effected by momentary [O(1 ms)] pulsed jets that are generated by a spanwise array of combustion-based actuators integrated into the center section of the airfoil. The flowfield in the cross-stream plane above the airfoil and in its near wake is computed from multiple high-resolution particle image velocity images that are obtained phase locked to the actuation waveform and allow for tracking of vorticity concentrations. The brief actuation pulse leads to a remarkably strong transitory change in the circulation about the entire airfoil that is manifested by a severing of the separated vorticity layer and the subsequent shedding of a large-scale clockwise vortex that forms the separated flow domain. The clockwise severed vorticity layer that follows behind this detached vortex has a distinct sharp streamwise edge that grows and rolls up as the layer is advected along the surface. It is shown that the shedding of the severed vortex and the accumulation of surface vorticity are accompanied by a transitory increase in the magnitude of the circulation about the airfoil that lasts 8—10 convective time scales. The attached vorticity layer ultimately lifts off the surface in a manner that is reminiscent of dynamic stall, and the flow separates again.

Direct Noise Computation of the Turbulent Flow Around a Zero-Incidence Airfoil

Abstract: A large eddy simulation of the flow around a NACA 0012 airfoil at zero incidence is performed at a chord-based Reynoldsnumber of500,000 anda Machnumberof 0.22.Theaim istoshow thathigh-order numericalschemes can successfully be used to perform direct acoustic computations of compressible transitional flow on curvilinear grids. AtaReynoldsnumberof500,000,theboundarylayersaroundtheairfoiltransition fromaninitially laminarstateto a turbulent state before reaching the trailing edge. Results obtained in the large eddy simulation show a well-placed transition zone and turbulence levels in the boundary layers that are in agreement with experimental data. Furthermore, the radiated acoustic field is determined directly by the large eddy simulation, without the use of an acoustic analogy. Third-octave acoustic spectra are compared favorably with experimental data.

Experimental Analysis of Thick Blunt Trailing-Edge Wind Turbine Airfoils

Abstract: An experimental investigation of blunt trailing-edge orflatback airfoils was conducted in the University of California, Davis aeronautical wind tunnel. The blunt trailing-edge airfoil is created by symmetrically adding thickness to both sides of the camber line of the FB-3500 airfoil, while maintaining the maximum thickness-to-chord ratio of 35%. Three airfoils of various trailing-edge thicknesses (0.5%, 8.75%, and 17.5% chord) are discussed in this paper. In the present study, each airfoil was tested under free and fixed boundary layer transition flow conditions at Reynolds numbers of 333,000 and 666,000. The fixed transition conditions were used to simulate surface soiling effects by placing artificial tripping devices at 2% chord on the suction surface and 5% chord on the pressure surface of each airfoil. The results of this investigation show that lift increases and the well-documented thick airfoil sensitivity to leading-edge transition reduces with increasing trailing-edge thickness. The flatback airfoils yield increased drag coefficients over the sharp trailing-edge airfoil due to an increase in base drag. The experimental results are compared against numerical predictions obtained with two different computational aerodynamics methods. Computations at bounded and unbounded conditions are used to quantify the wind tunnel wall corrections for the wind tunnel tests.

Oscillating behaviour of laminar separation bubble formed on an aerofoil near stall

Abstract: Laminar separation bubbles formed on NACA 0012 aerofoil near the onset of a stall were investigated to clarify the behaviour of the laminar separation bubble. Measurements were done at a chord Reynolds number of 1·3 × 105. Mean velocity measurements indicate that the long bubble of about 35% chord length is formed at α = 11·5° after the short bubble burst occurred. However, the instantaneous flow visualisation picture indicates that the flow is strongly oscillating at this angle of attack. The phase averaging technique has been applied to analyse this oscillating behaviour. The results indicate that the flow is oscillating between a small separation-reattachment bubble formed near the leading-edge at about a 10% chord length and a large separated region extending over the aerofoil surface. It is suggested that this small separation-reattachment bubble has a similar flow structure to that of the short bubble formed at a lower angle of attack.