Experimental Analysis of Aerodynamic Performance on asymmetric NACA 23018 Aerofoil incorporating a Leading-Edge Rotating Cylinder

Abstract

Abstract The effects of Momentum Injection can play a vital role in increasing the efficiency of an aerofoil by increasing its lift and delaying the stall angle. Most of the studies regarding this concept analyzed the effects of momentum injection for higher velocity ratios (cylinder tangential velocity to free stream velocity) only. Almost no or less studies analyzed this effect for lower velocity ratios which created a research gap in this field. In this paper, a rotating cylinder is placed at the leading edge of an asymmetric aerofoil NACA 23018 and the aerodynamic performance with and without a rotating cylinder was studied for lower velocity ratios (<0.2). The experimental analysis was carried out for two Reynolds numbers (Re): 2 × 105 and 2.5 × 105 corresponding to two free stream velocities: 20 m/s and 25 m/s, respectively, for six different angles of attack (−5°, 0°, 5°, 10°, 15° and 20°). The experimental analysis showed that incorporating a leading-edge rotating cylinder increased the maximum lift coefficient by around 24% and delayed the stall angle by around 20%.