Numerical Design of Leading Edge Flow Control over Swept High-Lift Airfoil

Abstract

The present paper presents the numerical design of a leading edge flow control methodology over a swept two-element high-lift airfoil using steady state blowing through vortex generator jets. In baseline cases without flow control a turbulent leading-edge type of stall has been observed, therefore the vortex generator jets are applied at the leading edge of the airfoil to prevent separations and thus increase maximum lift and maximum angle of attack, respectively. The design of the flow control setup involves the variation of several geometrical and operational key parameters of the vortex generator jets, such as the pitch angle, skew angle, blowing ratio, sense of rotation and spanwise spacing of two adjacent jets. The results show that the numerical design of leading edge flow control is feasible for such wing arrangement. They show a significant degree of stall suppression over the swept high-lift airfoil.