Fixed and rotary wing transonic aerodynamic improvement via surface-based trapped vortex generators

Abstract

A novel passive flow control concept for transonic flows over airfoils is proposed and examined via computational fluid dynamics. The control concept is based on the local modification of the airfoil's geometry. It aims to reduce drag or to increase lift without deteriorating the original lift and/or drag characteristics of the airfoil, respectively. Such flow control technique could be beneficial for improving the range or endurance of transonic aircraft or for mitigating the negative effects of transonic flow on the advancing blades of helicopter rotors. To explore the feasibility of the concept, two-dimensional computational fluid dynamics simulations of a NACA 0012 airfoil exposed to a freestream of Mach 0.7 and Re = 9 × 106 as well as of a NASA SC(3)−0712(B) supercritical airfoil exposed to a freestream of Mach 0.78 and Re = 30 × 106 were conducted. The baseline airfoil simulations were carefully verified and validated, showing excellent agreement with wind tunnel data. Then, 32 various local geometry modifications were proposed and systematically examined, all functioning as a trapped-vortex generator. The surface modifications were examined on both the upper and lower surfaces of the airfoils. The upper surface modifications demonstrated remarkable ability to reduce the strength of the shockwave on the upper surface of the airfoil with only a small penalty in lift. On the other hand, the lower surface modifications could significantly increase the lift-to-drag ratio for the full range of the investigated angles of attack, when compared to the baseline airfoil.