Aerodynamic Performance Assessment of an Airfoil at Reynolds Number 10000: A Computational Approach

Abstract

Effects of a low Reynolds number flow on an airfoil with cavities of a specified shape are analyzed computationally to assess the aerodynamic performance by observing the coefficients of lift and drag with increasing angles of attacks. The Reynolds number considered for the simulation is 1×10⁴ operating at atmospheric conditions at sea level. Indentations with a definite shape (right-angled triangle) are utilized to find the vortex effects of air in the cavity on the shear layer separation on airfoil surface to retain the flow even at higher angles of attack. The simulation is run in ANSYS Fluent to study the increase in the aerodynamic performance, research findings include an increase in coefficient of lift values by approximately, 111.86% of cavity with depth 0.05C indented at 70% of the chord length at 6° angle of attack, 68.13% of cavity with depth 0.05C indented at 50% of chord length at 6° angle of attack, 23.93% of cavity with depth 0.025C indented at 70% of chord length at 6° angle of attack, 3.96% of cavity of depth 0.025C at 6° angle of attack, 9.59% of cavity of depth 0.05C at 18° angle of attack.