Active flow control at a swept wing: A comparison of numerical and experimental results

Abstract

This work focuses on a comparison of experimental results and numerical data of an active flow control system for a 3D two element high-lift airfoil at Reynolds numbers of 2.0 · 10. The model is equipped with vortex generator jets close to the leading edge to suppress a turbulent leading edge stall. Comparison of the 3D experiments and different numerical cases including 2.5D and 3D calculations without AFC point out that the finding of the experiments can be reproduced quite well with a 2.5D-approach. However, full 3D computations give a better match with the experimental results. By a comparison of experimental and numerical (2.5D) data including the effect of active flow control it can be shown that the numerical approach successfully reproduces the effect of the vortex generator jets on the turbulent leading edge stall. In combination, the approach of 2.5D studies with active flow control and accompanying 3D full wing studies for the baseline cases does deliver all results necessary to assess the effectiveness of the active flow control system for a given configuration.