Numerical investigation and optimization of airfoil flow control using passive air-jet

Abstract

In this paper, a numerical investigation of airfoil flow control using passive air jet is presented. The study of generate a passive jet from pressure side to suction side was conducted in order to improve the airfoil characteristics. Such characteristics include boundary layer separation and stall inception. The numerical simulations conducted using CFDRC software. Different structured and unstructured finite volume technique is used to solve the steady compressible Navier—Stokes equations. The code results were validated with the experimental testing results for different turbulence model. Parametric study is performed for the location, slot width and angle of a synthetic jet on the suction side of a subsonic flow over a NACA 23012C airfoil. The maximum lift is achieved with the jet flow being normal to suction side surface but this come with penalty of the high drag. The maximum lift to drag ratio was accompanying with synthetic jet being located at 43% chord and 30° jet angle. Finally, optimum geometry of jet is obtained using simplex algorithm with initial shape obtained from the parametric study.