Numerical Simulation of Transonic Circulation Control

Abstract

© 2015 by the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics. Simulations of circulation control via blowing over Coanda surfaces at freestreams up to Mach 0.8 are presented. Validation was conducted against experiments performed at NASA on a 6 percent thick elliptical circulation control aerofoil, which demonstrates the necessary grid requirements and compares between two-equation turbulence models of the k - ω family. It is found that simplifications to the experimental set up are detrimental to the results. In addition, the performance and sensitivity of several circulation control devices applied to a supercritical aerofoil are presented. It is shown that circulation control has the ability to match the performance of traditional control surfaces during regimes of attached flow at transonic speeds.