High Lift and Flow Separation Control Via Moving Wall Effects: an Experimental and Numerical Investigation

Abstract

A wing was designed with a moving surface high-lift device in the form of a rotating cylinder at the leading edge to improve low speed flight characteristics. This rotating cylinder accelerates the air flow over the top of the wing, effectively combining the concept of lift generated by an airfoil and lift generated by a rotating cylinder. This faster moving air over the top of the wing increases the pressure differential, thus increasing lift. The added momentum to the air flow results in delayed flow separation and a decrease in drag. For experimental testing, a wing was built using balsawood, basswood and MonoKote and was tested in a subsonic wind tunnel using two different tests stands. For validation and further testing, the high-lift device was modeled in Gambit and numerical simulations were performed using ANSYS Fluent. Experimental and numerical data show the high-lift device to be effective.