Unsteady computational investigations of deploying load control microtabs

Abstract

Flow around an airfoil with a deploying microtab device has been numerically simulated by solving unsteady turbulent compressible two-dimensional, Navier-Stokes equations with the OVERFLOW 2 solver. Using a Chimera/overset grid topology, microtabs were placed at 95% of chord of a symmetric NACA 0012 airfoil. Microtab heights on the order of 1% of chord, deployed on the order of one (1) characteristic time unit were utilized. The unsteady effects of tab deployment time, deployment height, and freestream angle of attack on aerodynamic responses were also investigated. Validation studies with experimental results for static deployed microtabs and a dynamically deployed spoiler were also performed to ensure accurate temporal and spatial resolution of the numerical simulations.