Compressible Dynamic Stall Performance of a Variable Droop Leading Edge Airfoil with a Gurney Flap

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Author
Chandrasekhara, M.S.
Martin, P.B.
Tung, C.
Date
2008-01Metadata
Show full item recordAbstract
Results of a study using a passive approach to recover the loss of lift that occurred when a variable droop leading edge
(VDLE) airfoil was used to successfully control compressible dynamic stall by attach ing a small Gurney flap to it trailing edge are reported. Gurney flaps of' different heights were tested. The airfoil performance was evaluated by measuring the
unsteady pressures while it executed a sinusoidal pitch -Up maneuver over a range of Mach numbers from 0.2 to 0.4 at different reduced frequencies, with both static and dynamic leading edge droops. Not only was the " lost" lift recovered
completely with a 1 % chord-height Gurney flap, the drag and moment coefficients were also dramatically reduced and a
lift-to-drag ratio greater than 10 was achieved, making it an acceptable choice for this purpose. The improved performance is
explained through the basic fluid mechanics of the problem by discussing the various pressure distributions and the surface vorticity fluxes derived from these.
Description
(AIAA Paper No. 2004-0041), AHS Journal, Vol. 25, Jan. 2008, pp. 18-25.
Presented as AIAA Paper 2004-0041 at the Aerospace Sciences Meeting, Reno NV, January 2004