Flow characteristics of slat cove fillers

Abstract

Experimental measurements using Particle Image Velocimetry were carried out to understand the flow characteristics of a 30P30N high-lift airfoil with and without slat cove fillers. The tests were carried out for the 30P30N airfoil with a retracted chord of c=0.35, at angles of attack of α=6∘ and 12∘, and for a chord-based Reynolds number of Rec=7.0×105. The wall pressure fluctuation results show that the use of slat cove fillers eliminates the slat tonal noise component. The results of the mean flow fields such as the normalized mean velocity, Reynolds stress components, and turbulent kinetic energy are presented for the baseline, half-slat cove filler, and slat cove filler configurations. The velocity contour results with streamlines showed a recirculation region within the slat cavity. The use of the half-slat cove filler reduced the size of the recirculation region and the use of the slat cove filler eliminated the recirculation region. The mean velocity and turbulent kinetic energy profiles at the slat wake showed insignificant difference between the three tested configurations. The Particle Image Velocimetry results were further analyzed using Proper Orthogonal Decomposition. The results showed that the first two eigenmodes of the vorticity with the highest energy were contained within the slat shear layer and vortex shedding emanating from the slat cusp for the baseline case. The energy levels were distributed over the slat shear layer for the half-slat cove filler and slat cove filler configurations as the vortex shedding is suppressed by the use of the slat cove fillers.