Experimental Investigations on Friction Drag Reduction on an Airfoil by Passive Blowing

Friction drag reduction effect of a passive blowing on a Clark-Y airfoil is investigated. The passive blowing is conducted by the pressure difference on a wing surface between suction and blowing regions. The suction and the blowing regions are respectively set around the leading edge and the rear part of the upper surface. The Reynolds number based on the chord length is 0.65 × 106 and 1.54 × 106. The angle of attack is set to 0° and 6°. The mean velocity profiles on the blowing region and the downstream are shifted away from the wall by the passive blowing. This behavior qualitatively suggests local reduction of skin friction on the wing surface. As a result of the quantitative assessment, which takes into account the effects of pressure gradient and the roughness of the wall, the local friction drag reduction effect of passive blowing is estimated to reach 4%–23%.