Characteristics of Flow Past Different Symmetric Airfoils at Low Reynolds Number

Muhammad Adil Naseem

MS Mechanical Engineering
School of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering
National University of Sciences and Technology Islamabad
2)
Grid
and
time
refinement
studies
1)1)
Abstract
Abstract

Grid Independense
0.305

Even for the stationary airfoils, due to the boundary and shear layer interactions of upper and lower
surface of the airfoils, alternating vortex patterns form and the flow becomes time dependent. In the
current study, the unsteady behavior of the flow around a symmetric airfoil is considered as incidence
angle increases. The flow patterns are presented for wide range of angles of attack values. The vortex
pattern generated is analyzed numerically for different angles of attack at Re=1000 around NACA 0012
airfoil. At this Reynolds number, the flow is laminar and boundary layers are quite thick. Flow
separation and unsteady vortex shedding is observed even at low angles of attack. For NACA 0012
airfoil, the unsteady vortex pattern is observed at about 8 angle of attack for Re=1000.

0.3
0.295

Cd

0.29
0.285
0.28

2) Introduction

0.275

Most of the insects fly at Reynolds number of 103-104 and most of the birds fly at
Reynolds number of 104 to 105 due to their low speed and small length scales. The
Reynolds number for species such as hummingbirds is Re = 104, while for smaller
insects, such as fruit flies or honeybees, Re =102 103. Flapping wing Micro Air
Vehicles (MAVs), which are imitating flights of birds and insects, have favorable
designs for low Reynolds number regime compared to fixed wing MAVs. For the
design and control purpose of MAVs, the understanding of unsteady phenomena of
low Reynolds numbers flows becomes important in last decades. Aerodynamics of
airfoils operated at low Reynolds numbers has recently also gained an importance for
small wind turbine applications. In addition, previous works on low Reynolds
numbers have paid little attention to the flow field and aerodynamic properties at
large angle of attack.

3) Numerical Method
The governing equations are Navier-Stokes equations for incompressible, laminar and
two dimensional flow:

+ =

(1)
1

0.27
0

50000

100000

250000

300000

Figure 2: The value of Cd become independent after 120,000 mesh cells.

5) Flow Past NACA-0012
When NACA-0012 airfoil is placed
in the free-stream, it experiences
lift and drag forces. In this section,
the details regarding the production
of aerodynamic forces around
NACA-0012 symmetric airfoil has
been presented. When the is low,
no vortex is shed from the leading
or trailing edges of the airfoil in the
wake and aerodynamic forces are
non-oscillatory. As increases to
8, periodic shedding of vortices
from the leading and trailing edges
is initiated. Figs. 3 shows the
steady-state
solutions
for
coefficients of lift and drag at =
10.

Fig. 3 Time history of lift coefficient at = 10

6) Relation of lift & drag with angle of attack

0.9

1.4

+ 2

150000 200000
No. of Cells

(2)

0.8

1.2

0.7
1

Cd

0.8

Cl

where is the velocity vector, is the fluid density, p is the pressure, is the
kinematic viscosity. ANSYS Fluent implements the finite-volume method to solve
conservation equations.

0.6

0.6

0.5

NACA 0008

0.4

NACA 0012

0.3

0.4

NACA 0016

0.2
0.2

4) Grid and time refinement studies

0.1

The mesh around the airfoil is composed of two parts, namely inner region and outer region.
The inner region above the boundary layer is constructed with a circle having radius of 5c.
The inner region mesh is unstructured triangular grid. The outer domain is of O-type
structured mesh with 15c radius.
Detailed grid and time refinement studies are carried out for the angle of attack of 14
degree. To perform grid refinement studies 11 different meshes are used. The software
GAMBIT was used for grid generation.(Figure 2)

0
-0.2

10

20

30

40

Angle of Attack

0
0

10

20
30
Angle of Attack

40

7) Mean and Unsteady vortex pattern

8) Conclusion:

a)

b)

Figure 1. (a) Schematic of the boundary conditions and domain around

NACA0012 airfoil and (b) the grid near the airfoil.
References:
1. Ananda, G.K., P.P. Sukumar, and M.S. Selig, Measured aerodynamic characteristics of wings at
low Reynolds numbers. Aerospace Science and Technology, 2015. 42: p. 392-406.
2. Schewe, G., Reynolds-number effects in flow around more-or-less bluff bodies. Journal of Wind
Engineering and Industrial Aerodynamics, 2001. 89(1415): p. 1267-1289.
3. Sandberg, R.D. and L.E. Jones, Direct numerical simulations of low Reynolds number flow over
airfoils with trailing-edge serrations. Journal of Sound and Vibration, 2011. 330(16): p. 38183831.

Pre-and post-stall changes at different angles of attack have been investigated. We

observed that, at high , vortices shed from leading and trailing edges have different sizes
due to which the lift and drag forces becomes asymmetric about their mean value. Beyond
= 16, asymmetric property of the hydrodynamic forces becomes significant and the
amplitude of second harmonic also becomes comparable to that of fundamental
frequency. We have also explained the route from order to chaos for this hydrodynamic
system.