Numerical Investigation of Circulation Control Airfoils

Abstract

Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes simulations are presented for a circulation control airfoil. Comparisons with measured load characteristics are presented. The effects of turbulence models and the spatial accuracy of the simulations on the predictions are examined. It is observed that increasing the spatial accuracy from third-order to seventh-order had only a minor effect on the solution accuracy on the fine grid simulations reported here. Two-equation turbulence models, and particular the κ-ω /κ-e blended baseline model, tended to perform better than the one-equation model. The predictions were found to be sensitive to the turbulent kinetic energy level of the jet. Inclusion of the plenum chamber and the jet nozzle allowed the physics of the flow to be captured in greater detail than modeling the jet only at the jet slot, but had only a minor influence on the overall loads.