Wake of a Lifting Wing with Cut-In Sinusoidal Trailing Edges

Abstract

The wake behind a NACA0012 wing at incidence with cut-in sinusoidal trailing edges is experimentally investigated. A wing model with interchangeable trailing edges is used to study their impact on the wake properties. Both vertical and spanwise traverses of hot wires are done at different downstream positions to obtain the downstream evolution of statistical properties and to perform spectral analysis. Stereoscopic particle image velocimetry is used to study the flow structure in a spanwise/cross-stream plane. Spanwise inhomogeneity of the velocity deficit and of the wake width is observed and explained by the presence of a spanwise/cross-stream flow induced by the cut-in modifications. Spectral analysis shows a decrease of shedding intensity with a shorter trailing-edge wavelength, with a reduction of up to 57% when compared to a straight blunt wing. Blunt sinusoidal trailing edges exhibit a reduction of spanwise correlation compared to a blunt straight one. A sharp cut-in design is also studied, which exhibits a more broadband shedding spike at a lower frequency.