A Computational Study On Flow Separation Control Of Humpback Whale Inspired Sinusoidal Hydrofoils

• Main Authors: J. Joy, T. H. New, I. H. Ibrahim
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: Zenodo 2016
• Subjects: Computational Fluid Dynamics; Flow separation control; Hydrofoils; Leading-edge protuberances.; Custodio; Humpback Whale; Megaptera novaeangliae
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.1111947; https://zenodo.org/record/1111947

A computational study on bio-inspired NACA63 4 -021 hydrofoils with leading-edge protuberances has been carried out to investigate their hydrodynamic flow control characteristics at a Reynolds number of 14,000 and different angles-of-attack. The numerical simulations were performed using ANSYS FLUENT and based on Reynolds-Averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) solver mode incorporated with k-ω Shear Stress Transport (SST) turbulence model. The results obtained indicate varying flow phenomenon along the peaks and troughs over the span of the hydrofoils. Compared to the baseline hydrofoil with no leading-edge protuberances, the leading-edge modified hydrofoils tend to reduce flow separation extents along the peak regions. In contrast, there are increased flow separations in the trough regions of the hydrofoil with leading-edge protuberances. Interestingly, it was observed that dissimilar flow separation behaviour is produced along different peak- or trough-planes along the hydrofoil span, even though the troughs or peaks are physically similar at each interval for a particular hydrofoil. Significant interactions between adjacent flow structures produced by the leading-edge protuberances have also been observed. These flow interactions are believed to be responsible for the dissimilar flow separation behaviour along physically similar peak- or trough-planes. : {"references": ["Miklosovic, D.S., Murray M.M., Howie L.E., Fish F.E. Leading-edge tubercles delay stall on humpback whale (Megaptera novaeangliae) flippers, 2004. Physics of Fluids. 16 (5), 39-42.", "Murray, M.M., Fish, F.E., Howey, L.E., Miklosovic, D.S. Effects of leading edge tubercles on a representative whale flipper model at various sweep angles, 2005. In Proceedings of the 14th International symposium on Unmanned Untethered Submersible Technology (UUST), Autonomous undersea System Inst., Lee, NH.", "Johari, H., Henoch, C., Custodio, D., Levshin, A. Effects of leading-edge protuberances on airfoil performance, 2007. AIAA Journal. 45 (11), 2634-2643.", "Hansen, K.L., Kelso, R.M., Dally, B.B. Performance variations of leading-edge tubercles for distinct airfoil profiles, 2011. AIAA Journal. 49 (1), 185-194.", "Pedro H.T.C., Kobayashi M.H., Numerical study on stall delay on Humpback Whale flippers, 2008. AIAA paper number 2008-0584.", "Rostamzadeh N., Hansen K.L., Kelso R.M., Dally B.B., The effect of undulation leading-edge modifications on NACA 0021 airfoil characteristics, 2014, Physics of Fluids. 26, 107101.", "Zhang, M.M., Wang, G.F., Xu J.Z. Aerodynamic control of Low-Reynolds-Number airfoil with leading-edge protuberances, 2013. AIAA Journal. 51 (8), 1960-1971.", "Wei, Z., New, T.H., Cui, Y. An experimental study on flow separation control of hydrofoils with leading-edge tubercles at low Reynolds number, 2015. Ocean Engineering. 108, 336-349."]}