Unsteady Flow Simulation of Leading-Edge Separation in Thin-Airfoil Cascade: A Modification to Turbulence Model

Abstract

Leading edge separation of thin airfoil cascade in subsonic flow at large angle of incidence was simulated by implicit large eddy simulation (ILES) and Reynolds averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) simulations with various turbulence models. In the ILES simulations with fine grids, the time-averaged surface pressure qualitatively agreed with the experimental data. The RANS and ILES simulations on the coarse mesh failed to capture a peak of pressure near the leading edge. From spectrum analysis, it was observed that the flow-field was turbulent in the separation bubble. In the failed RANS simulations, the separation bubble was much longer and the turbulence energy near the leading edge was much lower than those in the ILES results. The development of lambda-shaped vortex structures and their sudden weakening near the reattachment point was observed in the unsteady simulations. Two possible modifications to existing turbulence models in RANS simulations were proposed based on the comparison of turbulence energy between the ILES and RANS results. It is shown that these modifications improve the bubble length and Cp distributions of RANS simulations, though further validation and modeling are needed for the application to realistic cases.