Effects of smart flap on aerodynamic performance of sinusoidal leading-edge wings at low Reynolds numbers

Author(s):  
AA Mehraban ◽  
MH Djavareshkian ◽  
Y Sayegh ◽  
B Forouzi Feshalami ◽  
Y Azargoon ◽  
...  

Sinusoidal leading-edge wings have shown a high performance after the stall region. In this study, the role of smart flaps in the aerodynamics of smooth and sinusoidal leading-edge wings at low Reynolds numbers of 29,000, 40,000 and 58,000 is investigated. Four wings with NACA 634-021 profile are firstly designed and then manufactured by a 3 D printer. Beam bending equation is used to determine the smart flap chord deflection. Next, wind tunnel tests are carried out to measure the lift and drag forces of proposed wings for a wide range of angles of attack, from zero to 36 degrees. Results show that using trailing-edge smart flap in sinusoidal leading-edge wing delays the stall point compared to the same wing without flap. However, a combination of smooth leading-edge wing and smart flap advances the stall. Furthermore, it is found that wings with smart flap generally have a higher lift to drag ratio due to their excellent performance in producing lift.

2021 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 8205-8218
Author(s):  
A. A. Mehraban ◽  
Mohammad Hassan Djavareshkian

Present study experimentally investigates the effects of ground clearance and Reynolds number on aerodynamic coefficients of smooth and sinusoidal leading-edge wings. Wind tunnel tests are conducted over a wide range of angles of attack from zero to 36 degrees, low Reynolds numbers of 30,000, 45,000 and 60,000, and also ground clearances of 0.5, 1 and ∞. Results showed that reduction of ground clearance and increment of Reynolds number cause the lift coefficient and the lift to drag ratio of both wings to be enhanced. Furthermore, the effects of Reynolds number and ground clearance on the smooth leading-edge wing are more than the sinusoidal leading-edge one. In addition, the sinusoidal leading-edge wing shows an excellent performance in the poststall region due to producing a higher lift and also by delaying the stall angle compared to the smooth leading-edge wing.


2020 ◽  
Vol 21 (6) ◽  
pp. 621
Author(s):  
Veerapathiran Thangaraj Gopinathan ◽  
John Bruce Ralphin Rose ◽  
Mohanram Surya

Aerodynamic efficiency of an airplane wing can be improved either by increasing its lift generation tendency or by reducing the drag. Recently, Bio-inspired designs have been received greater attention for the geometric modifications of airplane wings. One of the bio-inspired designs contains sinusoidal Humpback Whale (HW) tubercles, i.e., protuberances exist at the wing leading edge (LE). The tubercles have excellent flow control characteristics at low Reynolds numbers. The present work describes about the effect of tubercles on swept back wing performance at various Angle of Attack (AoA). NACA 0015 and NACA 4415 airfoils are used for swept back wing design with sweep angle about 30°. The modified wings (HUMP 0015 A, HUMP 0015 B, HUMP 4415 A, HUMP 4415 B) are designed with two amplitude to wavelength ratios (η) of 0.1 & 0.24 for the performance analysis. It is a novel effort to analyze the tubercle vortices along the span that induce additional flow energy especially, behind the tubercles peak and trough region. Subsequently, Co-efficient of Lift (CL), Co-efficient of Drag (CD) and boundary layer pressure gradients also predicted for modified and baseline (smooth LE) models in the pre & post-stall regimes. It was observed that the tubercles increase the performance of swept back wings by the enhanced CL/CD ratio in the pre-stall AoA region. Interestingly, the flow separation region behind the centerline of tubercles and formation of Laminar Separation Bubbles (LSB) were asymmetric because of the sweep.


2019 ◽  
Vol 11 ◽  
pp. 175682931983367
Author(s):  
Carolyn M Reed ◽  
David A Coleman ◽  
Moble Benedict

This paper provides a fundamental understanding of the unsteady fluid-dynamic phenomena on a cycloidal rotor blade operating at ultra-low Reynolds numbers (Re ∼ 18,000) by utilizing a combination of instantaneous blade force and flowfield measurements. The dynamic blade force coefficients were almost double the static ones, indicating the role of dynamic stall. For the dynamic case, the blade lift monotonically increased up to ±45° pitch amplitude; however, for the static case, the flow separated from the leading edge after around 15° with a large laminar separation bubble. There was significant asymmetry in the lift and drag coefficients between the upper and lower halves of the trajectory due to the flow curvature effects (virtual camber). The particle image velocimetry measured flowfield showed the dynamic stall process during the upper half to be significantly different from the lower half because of the reversal of dynamic virtual camber. Even at such low Reynolds numbers, the pressure forces, as opposed to viscous forces, were found to be dominant on the cyclorotor blade. The power required for rotation (rather than pitching power) dominated the total blade power.


Author(s):  
David Holst ◽  
Francesco Balduzzi ◽  
Alessandro Bianchini ◽  
Christian Navid Nayeri ◽  
Christian Oliver Paschereit ◽  
...  

Abstract Wind industry needs high quality airfoil data for a range of the angle of attack (AoA) much wider than that often provided by the technical literature, which often lacks data i.e. in deep- and post-stall region. Especially in case of vertical axis wind turbines (VAWTs), the blades operate at very large AoAs, which exceed the range of typical aviation application. In a previous study, some of the authors analyzed the trend of the lift coefficient of a NACA 0021 airfoil, using the suggestions provided by detailed CFD analyses to correct experimental data at low Reynolds numbers collected in an open-jet tunnel. In the present study, the correction method is extended in order to analyze even the drag and moment coefficients over a wide range of AoAs for two different Reynolds numbers (Re = 140k and Re = 180k) of particular interest for small wind turbines. The utility of these data is again specifically high in case of VAWTs, in which both the drag and the moment coefficient largely contribute to the torque. The investigation involves tunnel data regarding both static polars and dynamic sinusoidal pitching movements at multiple reduced frequencies. Concerning the numerical simulations, two different computational domains were considered, i.e. the full wind tunnel and the open field. Once experimental data have been purged by the influence of the wind tunnel by means of the proposed correction method, they were compared to existing data for similar Reynolds both for the NACA0021 and for similar airfoils. By doing so, some differences in the static stall angle and the extent of the hysteresis cycle are discussed. Overall, the present paper provides the scientific community with detailed analysis of low-Reynolds NACA 0021 data in multiple variations, which may enable, inter alia, a more effective VAWT design in the near future.


2016 ◽  
Vol 28 (3) ◽  
pp. 273-285
Author(s):  
Katsuya Hirata ◽  
◽  
Ryo Nozawa ◽  
Shogo Kondo ◽  
Kazuki Onishi ◽  
...  

[abstFig src='/00280003/02.jpg' width=""300"" text='Iso-Q surfaces of very-slow flow past an iNACA0015' ] The airfoil is often used as the elemental device for flying/swimming robots, determining its basic performances. However, most of the aerodynamic characteristics of the airfoil have been investigated at Reynolds numbers Re’s more than 106. On the other hand, our knowledge is not enough in low Reynolds-number ranges, in spite of the recent miniaturisation of robots. In the present study, referring to our previous findings (Hirata et al., 2011), we numerically examine three kinds of high-performance airfoils proposed for very-low Reynolds numbers; namely, an iNACA0015 (the NACA0015 placed back to front), an FPBi (a flat plate blended with iNACA0015 as its upper half) and an FPBN (a flat plate blended with the NACA0015 as its upper half), in comparison with such basic airfoils as a NACA0015 and an FP (a flat plate), at a Reynolds number Re = 1.0 × 102 using two- and three-dimensional computations. As a result, the FPBi shows the best performance among the five kinds of airfoils.


Author(s):  
Chia-Che Wu ◽  
Ping-Kuo Tseng ◽  
Ching-Hsiu Tsai

Usually microorganisms, molecules, or viruses in the fluidic environment are at very low Reynolds numbers because of tiny diameters. At very low Reynolds numbers, viscous forces of molecules and viruses will dominate. Those micro- or nanoparticles will stop moving immediately when flows cease and drag forces disappear, those phenomena were discovered by the fluorescent particle experiment. Of course, molecules and viruses are still subject to Brownian motion and move randomly. In order to increase the adhesion density of micro- and nanoparticles on sensor’s surface, designs of the flow movements in microfluidic channel is proposed. Adhesion density of linker 11-mercaptoundecanoic acid (MUA) and Turnip yellow mosaic virus (TYMV) with specific quantum dots were measured by confocal microscope. Fluorescent intensity and coverage of quantum dots are used to identify the adhesion density quantitatively. Results show that TYMV and MUA layers disperse randomly by dipping method. Fluorescent intensity of quantum dots; i.e. relative to the amount of MUA and TYMV; were 2.67A.U. and 19.13A.U., respectively, in W-type microfluidic devices to contrast just 1.00A.U. and 1.00A.U., respectively, by dipping method. Coverage of MUA and TYMV were 80∼90% and 70∼90%, respectively, in W-type microfluidic channel to contrast just 20∼50% and 0∼10%, respectively, by dipping method.


The cross-section shape and proportionality between geometrical dimensions are the most important design parameters of any lifting surfaces. These parameters affect the amount of the aerodynamic forces that will be generated. In this study, the focus is placed on the snake-cross-section airfoil known as the S-airfoil. It is found that there is a lack of available researches on S-airfoil despite its important characteristics. A parametric study on empty model of the S-airfoil with a cross-section shape that is inspired by the Chrysopelea paradise snake is conducted through numerical simulation. Simulation using 2D-ANSYS FLUENT17 software is used to generate the lift and drag forces to determine the performance of airfoil aerodynamic. Based on the results, the S-airfoil can be improved in performance of aerodynamic by reducing the thickness at certain range, whereby changing the thickness-to-chord ratio from 0.037 to 0.011 results in the increment of lift-to-drag ratio from 2.629 to 3.257. On other hand, increasing the height-to-chord ratio of the S-airfoil will increase maximum lift coefficient but drawback is a wide range of angles of attack regarding maximum lift-to-drag ratio. Encouraging results obtained in this study draws attention to the importance of expanding the research on S-airfoil and its usage, especially in wind energy.


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