Numerical Analysis of Effect of Leading-Edge Rotating Cylinder On NACA0021 Symmetric Airfoil
Numerical Analysis of Effect of Leading-Edge Rotating Cylinder On NACA0021 Symmetric Airfoil
Numerical Analysis of Effect of Leading-Edge Rotating Cylinder On NACA0021 Symmetric Airfoil
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.24018/ejers.2019.4.7.1385 11
EJERS, European Journal of Engineering Research and Science
Vol. 4, No. 7, July 2019
numerical analysis using rotating cylinder at the leading simulation using Fluent __ of ANSYS 18.1. The other
edge of NACA 0010 airfoil and documented an increase in parameters used for the numerical analysis are as follows: -
maximum lift by 145% compared to the unmodified airfoil (a) Turbulence model: RNG K- Turbulent model with
at a velocity ratio 2 [11]. But their investigation was limited enhanced wall treatment function.
to only two velocity ratios - 1 and 2. Faisal et al. studied (b) Fluid: air having constant density property at sea
experimental and numerical on symmetric NACA 0018 level condition.
airfoil using a leading-edge rotating cylinder in 2017 [12]. (c) Modi, calculate the force coefficient, the total
But they did not carry out any analysis on the pre and post length from leading edge to trailing edge for both base
stall characteristics of the modified airfoil. Abdulla et al. airfoil as well as modified airfoil was used.
carried out numerical study on varying the gaps between the (d) The convergence criteria used was 10-6 for all
rotating cylinder and the stationary wall of symmetric parameters.
NACA 0012 airfoil [13]. They concluded that a 3 mm gap (e) Fine meshing was defined in the vicinity of
between the moving and stationary wall achieved the best leading-edge rotating cylinder and airfoil aft surfaces.
result. But their study was limited to only velocity ratios The present study was undertaken at flow Reynolds
higher than 1. number based on chord length of 2.55 X 10 5 at different
All the previous studies have focused on the velocity ratio angles of attack varying from 0 degrees to 20 degrees. In
i.e. ratio of cylinder tangential velocity to free stream case of modified airfoil i.e. NACA0021 airfoil with leading-
velocity from 1 to 4. However, effects of velocity ratios edge cylinder, the momentum injection parameter or
below 1 has not been investigated or reported. No research velocity ratio as referred in paper is the ratio of tangential
literature was found wherein NACA0021 airfoil with velocity of the leading-edge cylinder to free stream velocity
leading edge cylinder was investigated. Very limited papers of air. The moving boundary condition in terms of RPM in
discuss about the flow features in the modified airfoil. clockwise direction was specified for the leading-edge
Therefore, this research paper revisits these aspects through cylinder whenever the numerical study was to be undertaken
numerical investigation for the thick symmetric airfoil for velocity ratios other than zero. A constant gap of 0.33%
NACA0021. A brief description of the computational of chord length was maintained between the leading-edge
domain, initial/ boundary conditions employed, of validation cylinder and airfoil aft body. The gap between the leading-
studies are presented in Section 2 of the paper. The results edge cylinder and NACA 0021 airfoil aft-body is referred as
of study and detailed analysis and discussion are in Section channel in the study. The modified airfoil has now four
3. Finally, conclusions drawn from the study are presented distinct surfaces viz. leading-edge cylinder, front of airfoil
in Section 4. (i.e. face of airfoil parallel to cylinder in the channel), top
face of airfoil aft body and bottom face of airfoil aft body.
The study and analysis include following: -
II. PROBLEM DEFINITION AND COMPUTATIONAL SETUP (a) Parametric study of variation of coefficient of lift,
In the present study base airfoil NACA0021 and modified coefficient of drag and cl/cd with respect of angles of attack
airfoil with leading-edge cylinder are modeled for a 2D (between 0 to 20o) for different velocity ratio of cylinder
analysis. The computational domain and the boundary ranging from zero to 1.78.
conditions for both problem setups are presented in Figure (b) Effect of velocity ratio on delay of airfoil stall
1. angle.
(c) Detailed Analysis of contribution to overall
coefficient modified airfoil lift by different airfoil surfaces.
(d) Analysis of flow structures and typicality of flow
for different airfoil attitude and velocity ratios.
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.24018/ejers.2019.4.7.1385 12
EJERS, European Journal of Engineering Research and Science
Vol. 4, No. 7, July 2019
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.24018/ejers.2019.4.7.1385 13
EJERS, European Journal of Engineering Research and Science
Vol. 4, No. 7, July 2019
Fig. 8. Coefficient of friction on the top surface of the airfoil for different
values of
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.24018/ejers.2019.4.7.1385 14
EJERS, European Journal of Engineering Research and Science
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(a)
Fig. 10. Effect of angle of attack on Coefficient of pressure over the
leading-edge cylinder.
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.24018/ejers.2019.4.7.1385 15
EJERS, European Journal of Engineering Research and Science
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V. CONCLUSIONS
The numerical investigation of the modified NACA0021
airfoil with leading edge rotating cylinder revealed that
performance of modified NACA0021 airfoil is superior to
base airfoil for velocity ratio () less than 1.0 as against all
previous studies presented studies only for velocity ratios 1-
4. The lift and drag characteristics of modified airfoil is
found to be superior to base airfoil for velocity ratio beyond
0.356 and 0.7 respectively wherein the coefficient of lift
increases and coefficient of drag reduces for all angles of
attack. The close look of the contribution to overall
coefficient of lift by the top surface is significant due to
delay in flow separation at higher angles of attack in view of
(a) (b)
momentum injection by the leading-edge cylinder. The
Fig. 12. (a) Wall pressure on front of airfoil Vs curve length (b) Curve Magnus effect of leading-edge cylinder is second major
length AB shown on front of airfoil contributor for improving the overall airfoil coefficient of
lift. The leading-edge rotating cylinder is found to act like
In order to ascertain the exact location of the flow
separation point on the bottom airfoil, skin friction
coefficient for bottom airfoil is plotted and presented in
Figure 14. Figure 14 indicates that the small separation
bubble appears and touches the bottom surface indicated by
coefficient of skin friction becoming zero at 4.4% chord
length on bottom surface of airfoil. The flow however gets
reattached to bottom surface of airfoil in a very short
distance. Figure 7(a) and (b) indicate that the coefficient of
lift contribution of the bottom surface for rotating cylinder
case is higher than stationary cylinder and its contribution
increases with higher velocity ratios. This is attributed to the
fact that at higher rotational speeds, the high-pressure air
(due to compression by rotating cylinder) from the channel
increases the bottom surfaces pressure. This is also evident
from coefficient pressure plot for bottom airfoil as shown at Fig. 14. Coefficient of skin friction near forward portion of bottom surface
Figure 15. of airfoil
(a)
(b)
Fig. 13. Vector plots indicating (a) air entry from bottom channel entry for
stationary cylinder and (b) air exit from bottom channel entry for rotating
cylinder
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.24018/ejers.2019.4.7.1385 16
EJERS, European Journal of Engineering Research and Science
Vol. 4, No. 7, July 2019
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.24018/ejers.2019.4.7.1385 17