Drag reduction on a transonic airfoil

TL;DR

This study demonstrates that spanwise forcing flow control on a transonic airfoil can significantly reduce drag and improve aerodynamic efficiency, with potential for substantial fuel savings in aircraft operations.

Contribution

The paper introduces a novel application of spanwise forcing for drag reduction on a transonic airfoil using large-scale direct numerical simulations.

Findings

Flow control reduces skin-friction and modifies shock waves.

Aerodynamic efficiency improves with increased lift and decreased drag.

Energy cost of control becomes negligible at aircraft scale.

Abstract

Flow control for turbulent skin-friction drag reduction is applied to a transonic airfoil to improve its aerodynamic performance. The study is based on direct numerical simulations (with up to 1.8 billions cells) of the compressible turbulent flow around a supercritical airfoil, at Reynolds and Mach numbers of $Re_\infty= 3 \times 10^5$ and $M_\infty =0.7$. Control via spanwise forcing is applied over a fraction of the suction side of the airfoil. Besides locally reducing friction, the control modifies the shock wave and significantly improves the aerodynamic efficiency of the airfoil by increasing lift and decreasing drag. Hence, the airfoil can achieve the required lift at a lower angle of attack and with a lower drag. Estimates at the aircraft level indicate that substantial savings are possible; when control is active, its energy cost becomes negligible thanks to the small application area. We suggest that skin-friction drag reduction should be considered not only as a goal, but also as a tool to improve the global aerodynamics of complex flows.