Numerical Study on Flow Characteristics and Flow Induced Noise of Flexible NACA0018 Airfoil

Abstract

A numerical investigation of unsteady flow field and flow induced noise frequency characteristics of a 2-D NACA0018 airfoil taking into account the airfoil’s deformation with different angles of attack is presented. The large eddy simulation (LES) method is employed to compute the unsteady flow field, the dynamic response of structure is simulated with finite element code, and the two different fields are coupled via a two way coupling method with the exchange of pressure and displacement. The far field sound levels and frequency features are calculated using FW-H equation with arbitrary boundary movement involved. The flow field results show that flow separation and wall pressure fluctuation are controlled by the deformation of flexible airfoil significantly, which indicates the effects of attack angle are attenuated. Compared with common quasi-periodic vortex shedding, the vortex shedding at 0 degree is obtained to be a restrict periodic process, and the shedding frequency is about 950Hz, and this phenomenon is confirmed both by wall pressure fluctuation and acoustic spectrum characteristics. In addition, the overall sound pressure levels in chordwise and normal direction are influenced by attack angle in different ways.