Effect of Gurney Flaps on the Aerodynamic Characteristics of NACA 0010 Cascades

Abstract

Abstract Two dimensional computations were conducted to investigate the performance of NACA 0010 cascades with Gurney Flaps. The cascades with three different stagger angles (βB) viz. 45°, 90° and 135° were studied for the aerodynamic performance characteristics of the blades with and without Gurney Flaps and the results were compared. The Gurney Flap’s length is 2 % of the chord length and has a 45° inclination with respect to the chord line. A significant lift augmentation is observed in all the three blade angle configurations due to the Gurney Flap. In terms of aerodynamic efficiency, it was observed that the presence of Gurney Flap was detrimental when βB = 45°, while the same was highly advantageous when βB = 135°. The streamline visualizations indicated the existence of counter rotating vortex pairs behind the Gurney Flap and that their rate of decay with respect to the Angle of attack was affected by the stagger angle at which the blades were arranged.