Computational study of flow around low-Reynolds airfoils

Abstract

A numerical analysis of the incompressible flow around two low-Reynolds airfoils was conducted. The drag and lift curves of the airfoils have been computed. The results were compared to available experimental results (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Low-Speed Airfoil Tests). Several RANS turbulence models were used for computations in order to investigate their capabilities to predict airfoil aerodynamic characteristics in wide range of angles of attack, from low to high incidences. Both steady and unsteady computations were done depending on the expected prevailing nature of the investigated flow. The main challenge in the computations was to identify separation regions which greatly influence aerodynamic characteristics of the airfoils. Generally used RANS-based computational methods ought to be customized in order to predict flow around low-Reynolds airfoils for wider range of angles of attack.