Effects of integral length scale variations on the stall characteristics of a wing at high free-stream turbulence conditions

Abstract

The effect of variations in the integral length scale of incoming free-stream turbulence on a NACA0012 wing is investigated with the use of force, moment and particle image velocimetry measurements. At a chord-based Reynolds number (where c is the chord length, is the free-stream velocity and is the kinematic viscosity) of, an active grid generates turbulence intensities of 15 % at normalised integral length scales ranging from 0.5 to 1. The introduction of turbulence improves the time-averaged performance characteristics of the wing by delaying stall and increasing the peak lift coefficient. It is found that for half-chord integral length scales, the magnitude of the fluctuations in forces and moments is larger than that of full-chord integral length scales, as the former amplifies the naturally occurring unsteadiness in the flow (when there is no free-stream turbulence). The increase in magnitude is ascribed to a larger density of smaller-scale vortices within the separated flow and wake region of the wing.