Numerical simulation of Gurney flap on SFYT15thick airfoil

A two-dimensional steady Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes （RANS） equation was solved to investigate the effects of a Gurney flap on SFYT15 thick airfoil aerodynamic performance. This airfoil was designed for flight vehicle operating at 20 km altitude with freestream velocity of 25 m/s, The chord length （C） is 5 m and the Reynolds number based on chord length is Re = 7.76 × 10^5. Gurney flaps with the heights ranging from 0.25%C to 3%C were investigated. The shear stress transport （SST） k-ω turbulence model was used to simulate the flow structure around the airfoil. It is showed that Gurney flap can enhance not only the prestall lift but also lift-to-drag ratio in a certain range of angles of attack. Specially, at cruise angle of attack （ω = 3°）, Gurney flap with 0.5%C height can increase lift-to-drag ratio by 2.7%, and lift coefficient by 12.9%, respectively. Furthermore, the surface pressure distribution, streamlines and trailing-edge flow structure around the airfoil are illustrated, which are helpful to understand the mechanisms of Gurney flap on airfoil aerodynamic performance. Moreover, it is found that the increase of airfoil drag with Gurney flap can be attributed to the increase of pressure drag between the windward and the leeward sides of Gurney flat itself.

Dynamical mode decomposition of Gurney flap wake flow

The present work uses dynamic mode decomposition(DMD) to analyze wake flow of NACA0015 airfoil with Gurney flap.The physics of DMD is first introduced.Then the PIV-measured wake flow velocity field is decomposed into dynamical modes.The vortex shedding pattern behind the trailing edge and its high-order harmonics have been captured with abundant information such as frequency,wavelength and convection speed.It is observed that high-order dynamic modes convect faster than low-order modes;moreover the wavelength of the dynamic modes scales with the corresponding frequency in power law.

Numerical Analysis of Influence of Gurney Flaps Applied to Wind Turbines

The effect of Gurney flaps with different heights on the S809 airfoil and NH1500 blade is numerically simulated.The influence of the Gurney flap is analyzed at different wind speeds and the comparison of the aerodynamic performance is given between the blades with and without the Gurney flap.The results demonstrate that a Gurney flap added on the blade can greatly increase the efficiency of the wind turbine especially at high wind speeds.

A Study on Relationship among Blade Camber Direction and Pitch Angle and Performance of a Small Straight-Blade Darrieus Wind Turbine by Using Scale Test Model and Gurney Flap

Straight-blade Darrieus vertical axis wind turbines are used as medium and small size wind turbine because of higher power output in vertical axis wind turbine (VAWT). In our previous study, the relationship between the performance and Reynolds number based on airfoil chord length had been investigated by using small-scale test models of lift-type VAWT, and the results showed that the performance of tested wind turbine models with small diameter was clearly lower than that of the large-scale field test machine, and its performance also varies significantly with the blade pitch angle. In this study, we focused on the performance of a small-scale straight-blade Darrieus VAWT, the relationship among the blade airfoil camber direction and the pitch angle, and the performance of the small-scale VAWT was examined experimentally by using a small-scale VAWT test model with Gurney flap which was a small flat plate. Gurney flaps with its height h, as a ratio to the blade chord length c, h/c = 0.036 to 0.055, were attached to the blades of the VAWT test model, in addition, the attaching direction of the Gurney flap on the blade was examined for both inward and outward of the rotor, and the pitch angle was also examined for a range of −5 to 10 degrees. These results are discussed comparing with the result of the VAWT without Gurney flap and considering the numerical results for the single blade with/without the Gurney flap. The results showed that the performance of the tested VAWT was reversed between the inward and outward Gurney flaps around a pitch angle of 10 degrees. That is, the inward Gurney flap was superior at a pitch angle of less than 10 degrees, while the outward Gurney flap was effective at a pitch angle of more than 10 degrees. Furthermore, for the tested small-scale VAWT model, the optimum pitch angle was about 5 degrees, and the inward and shorter Gurney flap showed higher power performance of the VAWT under this pitch angle condition.

Performance analysis of variable speed tail rotors with Gurney flaps

Gurney Flaps(GFs) are used for improving the performance of variable speed tail rotors. A validated analytical helicopter model able to predict the main and tail rotor power is utilized. The fixed height GF has substantially small influence on the tail rotor power in hover and low to medium speed forward flight, and can obtain significant power reduction in high speed flight.This ability can be enhanced by decreasing the tail rotor speed. With the deployment of GF, the collective pitch of the tail rotor decreases, and the maximum tail rotor thrust increases. The GF can compensate the reduction of the maximum thrust by the decrease in the tail rotor speed. The GF with a height of 5% of the chord length can almost remedy 50% of the thrust reduction introduced by decreasing 10% of the tail rotor speed. With the increase of GF height, the maximum thrust generated by the tail rotor increases. The GF with larger height can cause the increase in the tail rotor power in hover and low to medium speed flight. The retractable GF can obtain more power savings than the fixed height GF. However, the benefit is substantially small even in high speed flight. Considering the side effects introduced by the active GF, the fixed height GF may be more preferable. The mechanism for the retractable GF to generate more tail rotor thrust is to increase the lift in advancing side due to the higher dynamic pressure.

Effect of Gurney flap on flow separation and aerodynamic performance of an airfoil under rain and icing conditions

In the present study,special attention is paid to numerically investigate the aerodynamic performance of the NACA 0012 airfoil under rain and icing conditions with the aim to better understand the severe aerodynamic performance penalties of aircraft in flight.Furthermore,in order to control the flow separation and improve the aerodynamic performance of the airfoil under critical atmospheric conditions,the Gurney flap with different heights is attached to the trailing edge of the airfoil.The simulation is done at a Reynolds number of 3.1 × 105 under different atmospheric conditions including dry,rain,icing and coupling of rain and icing conditions.A two-way momentum coupled Eulerian-Lagrangian multiphase method is used to simulate the process of water film layer formed on the airfoil surface due to rainfall.According to the results,accumulation of water due to rainfall and ice accretion on the airfoil surface inevitably provides notable negative effects on the aerodynamic performance of the airfoil.It is concluded that icing induces a higher aerodynamic degradation than rain due to very intensive ice accretion.The Gurney flap as a passive flow control method with a favorable height for each condition is very beneficial.The maximum increment of the lift-to-drag ratio is achieved by Gurney Hap with a height of 0.01 of airfoil chord length for dry and rain conditions and 0.02 of airfoil chord length for icing and coupling of rain and icing conditions,respectively.

Low-Speed Aerodynamic Characteristics of Supercritical Airfoil with Small High-Lift Devices from Flow Pattern Measurements

In this paper, the lift coefficients of SC-0414 airfoil are estimated by applying modified Yamana’s method to the flow visualization results, which are obtained by utilizing the smoke tunnel. The application of the modified Yamana’s method is evaluated with two calculation methods. Additionally, the lift estimation, wake measurements, and numerical simulations are performed to clarify the low-speed aerodynamic characteristics of the SC airfoil with flaps. The angle of attack was varied from −5° to 8°. The flow velocity was 12 m/s and the Reynolds number was 1.6 × 105. As a result, the estimated lift coefficients show a good agreement with the results from reference data and numerical simulations. In clean condition, the lift coefficients calculated from the two methods show quantitative agreement, and no significant difference could be confirmed. However, the slope of the lifts calculated from ys is higher and closer to the reference data than those obtained from sc, where ys denotes the height where the distance from the streamline to the reference line is the largest, and sc denotes the displacement of the center of pressure from the origin of the coordinate, respectively. In the case of flaps, the GFs have an observable effect on the aerodynamic performance of the SC-0414 airfoil. When the height of the flap was increased, the lift and drag coefficients increased. The installation of a GF with a height equal to 1% of the chord length of the airfoil significantly improved the low-speed aerodynamic performance of SC airfoils.