Flow control of a wind-turbine airfoil with a leading-edge spherical dimple

Abstract

ABSTRACT The flow separation occurred at an early angle of attack (AOA) in airfoil directs the researchers to focus on the methods of flow controlling. The present study incorporated a spherical dimple on the NACA (National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics) 4415 leading edge as a passive flow control device and compared the aerodynamic performances with the plain NACA 4415 airfoil. The dimple diameter (d) was varied from 1% to 6% of the chord length (0.01C-0.06C) to generate four numbers of the modified airfoil. A chord-based Reynolds number (Re) of 2 × 105 was selected for the present study. Shear-Stress Transport (SST) k-ω turbulence model with SIMPLE (semi-implicit method for pressure linked equations) scheme was chosen to solve the present problem computationally in ANSYS FLUENT 14.0. The results showed that the modification helped in delaying stall by 6° at the expense of 0.8% maximum lift coefficient with a dimple diameter of 0.01C. The modified airfoils experienced a primary low-velocity circular zone near the trailing edge and a secondary circulation zone at the dimple edges. In contrast, only one larger circulation zone was present near the plain airfoil trailing edge. The smallest dimple (d = 0.01C) showed a maximum lift enhancement ratio and lift to drag enhancement ratio of 14.8% and 7.86%, respectively.