Numerical Investigation of Hinged Flap vs. Morphed Trailing-edge at Low Reynolds Number

Abstract

This study investigates the effects of camber morphing on the performance of a thick airfoil, NACA0012, and a thin airfoil, NACA0003, for a chord-based Reynolds number range of 10^4 to10^5, which represents the flight regime of micro aerial vehicles (MAVs). Camber morphing may be superior to hinged flaps when used for lift augmentation because it can generate more lift and higher lift-to-drag ratios due to delayed pressure recovery on the airfoil surface. As a low Reynolds number regime has been considered, the laminar-turbulent transitional flow behaviour was therefore investigated using a Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes solver with a k-�� turbulence model and a local correlation-based one-equation transition model. Results showed that the use of camber morphing in lieu of a hinged flap delayed flow separation in NACA0012 airfoil. Although a similar effect was not observed for the NACA0003 airfoil, camber morphing resulted in better lift-to-drag ratios and endurance factor for the NACA0003 airfoil for the entire Reynolds number range considered.