Passive Flow Control Applied to a NACA23012 Airfoil In A Subsonic Flow

Abstract

Aerodynamic subsonic flows are an important flow regime for the aeronautical/aerospace industry. Recent studies by the author have shown that the use of an active flow control device, that of a localised asymmetrically located synthetic jet, can significantly improve the aerodynamic performance of bluff and streamlined bodies by altering the three-dimensional aerodynamics of the fluid flow over the body. The present work is a computational analysis of a passive flow control device that seeks to improve the flow over a streamlined body. A passive flow control device would be beneficial in reducing fuel consumption by increasing the efficiency of the flow over solid geometries without the need for additional energy input, as is the case with active flow control systems. The present numerical simulation is conducted on a quasi-three-dimensional body, a NAC23012 airfoil, in a wind tunnel cross-flow. The computational model was constructed based upon the previous experimental work conducted by the author [5, 11]. The passive flow control device was modelled and simulated using two different geometries. The airfoil was positioned at two different angles of attack. At 0 and at 20 which is above the angle where separation normally occurs for this airfoil. It was found that the passive flow control geometries through the surface pressure distribution decreased the coefficient of lift to the baseline case. However, it was also observed that there was a significant change in the drag coefficient at on an AOA of 20.