Title: Lift sensitivity analysis for a Whitcomb airfoil with aileron deflections

Authors: Alexander Kuzmin

Addresses: Department of Mathematics and Mechanics, St. Petersburg State University, St. Petersburg, 198504, Russia

Abstract: Transonic flow past a two-element Whitcomb airfoil is studied in the range of free-stream Mach numbers between 0.81 and 0.86. Numerical solutions of the Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) equations are obtained with a finite-volume solver on unstructured meshes using several turbulence models. Both smooth and rough airfoil surfaces are considered. The study reveals free-stream conditions that admit extreme sensitivity of aerodynamic coefficients to small changes of the aileron deflection. In addition, computations demonstrate free-stream conditions in which aileron deflections produce no effect on the lift.

Keywords: turbulent flow; Whitcomb airfoil; local supersonic regions; interaction; aileron deflections; lift coefficient; lift sensitivity analysis; transonic flow; RANS; turbulence modelling; free-stream Mach numbers; airfoil surfaces; aerodynamic coefficients.

DOI: 10.1504/PCFD.2015.067326

Progress in Computational Fluid Dynamics, An International Journal, 2015 Vol.15 No.1, pp.10 - 15

Published online: 05 Feb 2015 *

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