Numerical Investigation on Flow Control with Moving Surface Over a NACA0015 Airfoil

Abstract

Moving surface boundary-layer control (MSBC) appears a promising flow control technique to enhance the airfoils aerodynamics prominently with little energy input. In this paper numerical investigation on flow control with moving surface over a NACA0015 airfoil is conducted with a Reynolds Averaged Navier-stokes (RANS) based approach, in which the moving surface is implemented with mounting two rotating cylinders at leading edge and leeward side of the airfoil separately. In order to do that, a quasi-steady method has been proposed for modelling the rotating cylinder, and is used to study the effects of MSBC technique for the airfoil aerodynamic performance. The numerical results show that the airfoil aerodynamic performance would get worse with the installation of local moving surface devices; nevertheless, its performance can be greatly compensated with rotation of the cylinders. It is found that the boundary layer of airfoil can be suppressed with an effective rotating strategy such that the flow separation on the airfoil is greatly delayed and the aerodynamic performance is improved.