'American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA)'
Doi
Abstract
The paper presents a computational analysis of the characteristics of a NACA 634-
021 aerofoil incorporated with sinusoidal leading-edge protuberances at Re = 14,000.
The protuberances are characterized by an amplitude and wavelength of 12% and 50%
of the aerofoil chord length respectively. An unsteady Reynolds Average Navier Stokes
(RANS) analysis of the full-span aerofoils was carried out using Transition SST (Shear
Stress Transport) turbulence model across five different angles-of-attack (AOA).
Comparisons with previous experimental results reported good qualitative agreements
in terms of flow separation when the aerofoils are pitched at higher AOAs. Results
presented here comprised of near-wall flow visualizations of the flow separation bubble
at the peaks and troughs of the protuberances. Additionally, results indicate that the
aerofoil with leading-edge protuberances displayed distinctive wall shear streamline and
iso-contour characteristics at different span-wise positions. This implies that even at a
low Reynolds number, implementations of these leading-edge protuberances could have
positive or adverse effects on flow separation
