Study of static stall characteristics of a NACA 0012 aerofoil using turbulence modeling

Abstract

Static stall of a NACA 0012 aerofoil has been studied by simulating a two dimensional, incompressible flow over the aerofoil section at various angles of attack for a Reynold’s number of three million. An SST k ω x turbulence model is used to capture the turbulence, flow separation, and associated pressure changes. The lift coefficient is plotted with the angle of attack to determine the stall angle and the results are compared with experimental results. The computation is done on a structured mesh comprising of 229,376 cells (with refined regions near the aerofoil and extending till the edge of the domain for the part above and below its front of to capture the boundary layer and turbulence over the aerofoil) by solving the steady-state momentum and continuity equations along with the two equations of the SST k ω x turbulence model. The angle of attack is varied by changing the flow direction of air; no changes are made to the air speed. This study shows that modeling turbulence with the SST k ω x model can yield an estimate of the stall angle of aerofoils at high Reynold’s number flows.