Effect of tip vortices on flow over NACA4412 aerofoil with different aspect ratios

Abstract

Effect of tip vortices on flow and laminar separation bubble over NACA4412 aerofoil at low Reynolds numbers and different angles of attack was investigated in detail by performing force and flow visualization via smoke wire technique. Experiments have been done at Reynolds number of 50000 and the wing model of aspect-ratio was 1 and 3, respectively. From the experimental results, the flow visualization results showed that tip vortices effect on the laminar separation bubble and the bubble reduces over the wing with low aspect ratio as the angle of attack increased. Moreover, it was noticed that stall angles decreased as aspect-ratio increased at the same Reynolds number.