Effects of wall-normal and angular momentum injections in airfoil separation control

TL;DR

This computational study investigates how wall-normal and angular momentum injections via swirling jets can suppress flow separation over an airfoil, enhancing lift and flow control effectiveness.

Contribution

It introduces a modified coefficient of momentum incorporating angular momentum, enabling better categorization of flow states under control.

Findings

Angular momentum enhances separation suppression.

Modified coefficient of momentum effectively classifies flow states.

Swirling jets improve lift and flow attachment.

Abstract

The objective of this computational study is to quantify the influence of wall-normal and angular momentum injections in suppressing laminar flow separation over a canonical airfoil. Open-loop control of fully separated, incompressible flow over a NACA 0012 airfoil at $\alpha = 9^\circ$ and $Re = 23,000$ is examined with large-eddy simulations. This study independently introduces wall-normal momentum and angular momentum into the separated flow using swirling jets through model boundary conditions. The response of the flow field and the surface vorticity fluxes to various combinations of actuation inputs are examined in detail. It is observed that the addition of angular momentum input to wall-normal momentum injection enhances the suppression of flow separation. Lift enhancement and suppression of separation with the wall-normal and angular momentum inputs are characterized by modifying the standard definition of the coefficient of momentum. The effect of angular momentum is incorporated into the modified coefficient of momentum by introducing a characteristic swirling jet velocity based on the non-dimensional swirl number. With this single modified coefficient of momentum, we are able to categorize each controlled flow into separated, transitional, and attached flows.