Hydrodynamic characteristics of cambered NACA0012 for flexible-wing application of a flapping-type tidal stream energy harvesting system

Abstract

In recent years, nonlinear dynamic models have been developed for flapping-type energy harvesting systems with a rigid wing, but not for those with a flexible wing. Thus, in this study, flexible wing designs of NACA0012 section are proposed and measurements of the forces of rigid cambered wings, which are used to estimate the performance of the designed wings, are conducted. Polar curves from the measured lift and drag coefficients show that JavaFoil estimation is much closer to the measured values than Eppler over the entire given range of angles of attack. As the camber of the rigid cambered wings is increased, both the lift and drag coefficients increase, in turn increasing the resultant forces. Moreover, the maximum resultant forces for all rigid cambered wings are achieved at the same angle of attack as the maximum lift coefficient, meaning that the lift coefficient is dominant in representations of the wing characteristics.