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Experimental Study on the Effect of Tubercle on Aerodynamic Characteristics of Swept Wings at low Reynolds Number

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Iranian Journal of Science and Technology, Transactions of Mechanical Engineering Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Inspired from the Humpback whale flipper, airfoils and wings incorporated with sinusoidal leading edge are much studied for their improved aerodynamic characteristics like delayed stall and higher lift in post-stall region. In this work, the performance of different swept wings equipped with leading edge tubercles is studied by comparing with their baseline models at a low Reynolds number of 100,000. Tubercles on swept wings can either be placed normal to leading edge or parallel to flow direction. First part of the study involves selecting the swept wing configuration which has superior aerodynamic performance from the two possible configurations based on the tubercle alignment on it. Wind tunnel experiment is conducted for the above-mentioned configuration of tubercles on different swept wings as well as unswept wing and compared to corresponding baseline wings. The orientation of tubercle relative to flow has a significance in aerodynamic performance. Aerodynamic efficiency is maximum when the tubercles are aligned with the flow direction. It is seen that tubercles on high swept wing are not as effective as it is on a unswept wing. On unswept and low swept, wing tubercles improve the stall characteristics by preventing abrupt stall and maintaining high lift in post-stall regime. The lift-to-drag ratio for these wings is improved when tubercles are introduced. However, for high swept, wing tubercles do not change the aerodynamic characteristics significantly.

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Abbreviations

A :

Amplitude of tubercle

\(C_{D}\) :

Coefficient of drag

\(C_{L_\mathrm{max}}\) :

Maximum coefficient of lift

\(C_{D_{i}}\) :

Coefficient of induced drag

c :

Mean chord

D :

Drag force

L :

Lift force

\({(L/D)}_\mathrm{max}\) :

Maximum lift-to-drag ratio

S :

Span of wing

W :

Wavelength of tubercle

Re :

Reynolds number

\(\alpha\) :

Angle of attack

\(\alpha _\mathrm{stall}\) :

Stall angle

\(\beta\) :

Angle between flow direction and direction of tubercle

\(\lambda\) :

Swept angle of wing

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Acknowledgements

Authors would like to acknowledge the financial support extended by the Science & Engineering Research Board (SERB), India (Sanction order: EMR/2015/000879) to carry out this research work.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Mechanical Engineering, National Institute of Technology Karnataka Surathkal, Surathkal, Karnataka, 575 025, India

    Jeena Joseph & A. Sathyabhama

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  1. Jeena Joseph
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  2. A. Sathyabhama
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Correspondence to Jeena Joseph.

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Joseph, J., Sathyabhama, A. Experimental Study on the Effect of Tubercle on Aerodynamic Characteristics of Swept Wings at low Reynolds Number. Iran J Sci Technol Trans Mech Eng 46, 783–792 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40997-021-00455-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40997-021-00455-z

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