CFD Analysis of Responses of Two-Equation Turbulence Models for Flow over NACA 0012, NACA 4412 and S809 Aerofoils

Abstract

The present study includes a detailed analysis of responses of six available two-equation turbulence models for flow over NACA 0012 using CFD analysis flow software ANSYS FLUENT 17.1. The analysis is done for steady-state flow over 2D NACA 0012 aerofoil for a wind velocity of approximately 51 m/s. The purpose is to arrive at a turbulence model for studying the effect of turbulence on a horizontal axis wind turbine in future. In the present study, Cl and Cd are analysed for various AOA. The detailed analysis reveals that k–ω SST model shows better agreement with experimental results and is therefore more capable of capturing the physics of turbulence for this particular study. The k–ω SST model is further used to estimate and analyse the drag for unsymmetrical aerofoils of NACA 4412 and NREL’s S809 with respect to NACA 0012. It is found that the former provides better lift coefficient than the latter two by approximately 25–35%.