Document Type

Article

Publication Date

Winter 12-18-2020

Abstract

The issue of the flow separation and the urge to reach higher performance ratings in airfoils can be acquired through the passive surface modification. By altering the shape of the upper surface to have a perturbated shape using a simple sinusoidal wave, the flow characteristics of airfoils can be enhanced to yield higher desired outputs. This study proposes the effect of both the wave amplitude and the number of waves for the perturbated upper surface on the lift and drag characteristics for SG-6040 and SG-6042 airfoils. Perturbating the upper surface of the airfoil can be of a great advantage as it generates an additional suction pressure on the valleys of the bumpy surface which facilitate for further attachment of the flow along the airfoil surface. The present work is conducted through a numerical investigation using the CFD simulations. The amplitude and the number of waves tests were separately conducted to conclude the optimal combination of the best amplitude and wave number. The results obtained on SG6040 and SG6042 shows that the surface perturbations along the upper surface of the airfoil enhance the aerodynamic performance especially at low angels of attack. The results of the modified airfoils resulted in higher lift to drag ratio at low angels of attack due to the stable increase of lift coefficients and the opposingly decreasing drag ratio, while at elevated angles of attack the drag coefficients shows an obvious high rate increase which results in decreasing the lift to drag ratio. As for the SG-6042 the highest lift to drag ratio increase was at AOA-6o with a 6.9%. Nevertheless, for the SG-6040, the highest lift to drag ratio was achieved at AOA-6o with a 12.3% enhancement.

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