Parametric Study of an Oscillating Airfoil in a Power-Extraction Regime

TLDR

A heaving and pitching wing can extract energy from a flow, acting as a turbine, and the study first outlines the unsteady aerodynamics and operating regimes of such oscillating airfoils. The study investigates the theoretical performance of a heaving‑pitching airfoil using unsteady two‑dimensional laminar‑flow CFD simulations in FLUENT. Simulations are performed in the airfoil’s heaving reference frame, treating only the pitching motion via rigid‑body mesh rotation and a circular nonconformal sliding interface, while highlighting that unsteadiness cannot be captured by quasi‑steady models. The parametric study maps power‑extraction efficiency over frequency and pitching amplitude, showing efficiencies above 20 % in a 0–55° range, and reveals that heaving amplitude and frequency dominate performance while geometry and viscous effects are secondary.

Abstract

A wing that is heaving and pitching simultaneously may extract energy from an oncoming flow, thus acting as a turbine. The theoretical performance of such a concept is investigated here through unsteady two-dimensional laminar-flow simulations using the commercial finite volume computational fluid dynamics code FLUENT. Computations are performed in the heaving reference frame of the airfoil, thus leaving only the pitching motion of the airfoil to be dealt with through a rigid-body mesh rotation and a circular nonconformal sliding interface. Unsteady aerodynamics basics of the oscillating airfoil are first exposed, with a description of the operating regimes. Effects of unsteadiness are stressed and the inadequacy of a quasi-steady approach to take them into account is exposed. We present a mapping of power-extraction efficiency for a single oscillating airfoil in the frequency and pitching-amplitude domain: 0 55deg in which efficiencies are higher than 20%. Results from a parametric study are then provided and discussed. It is found that motion-related parameters such as heaving amplitude and frequency have the strongest effects on airfoil performances, whereas geometry and viscous parameters turn out to play a secondary role.