Vortex Dynamics and Boundary Layer Characteristics of Airfoils with Surface Modifications

Abstract

An experimental study is conducted to investigate the aerodynamic and flow field characteristics of a NACA-0010 airfoil with and without leading-edge tubercles in flow with freestream turbulence intensity of 4 percent. Preliminary measurements of wake velocity profiles, force measurements using a six-component force balance and Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV) flow field measurements were carried out. The measurements were carried out for two types of airfoils, one with smooth leading edge (baseline) and the other with modified leading-edge by introducing tubercles. All the experiments were carried out at Reynolds numbers ranging from 160,000 to 412,000. The results from this study show that in the range of Reynolds numbers tested for the half-span airfoil model, while there is no performance enhancement pre-stall, significant performance enhancement is achieved for stall and post-stall conditions.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Aug 16, 2019
Accession Number
AD1096599

Entities

People

  • Isaac Choutapalli

Organizations

  • University of Texas Rio Grande Valley

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Air Platforms
  • Energy and Power Technologies
  • Human Systems

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Aerodynamic Characteristics
  • Boundary Layer
  • Brushless Dc Motors
  • Computational Fluid Dynamics
  • Computational Science
  • Flow Visualization
  • Fluid Dynamics
  • Fluid Flow
  • Geometry
  • Hydrodynamics
  • Mechanical Engineering
  • Pressure Distribution
  • Pressure Measurement
  • Students
  • Three Dimensional
  • Turbulent Mixing
  • Two Dimensional

Fields of Study

  • Physics

Readers

  • Aerodynamics/Aeronautics.
  • Fluid Mechanics and Fluid Dynamics.