Reynolds number, thickness and camber effects on flapping airfoil propulsion

摘要: Abstract The effect of varying airfoil thickness and camber on plunging combined pitching propulsion at Reynolds number Re=200, 2000, 20 000 2×10 6 was studied by numerical simulations for fully laminar turbulent flow regimes. study performed 2-D NACA symmetric airfoils with 6–50% thick sections undergoing pure motion reduced frequency k =2 amplitudes h =0.25 0.5, =2, =0.5, phase ϕ =90°, pitch angle θ o =15° 30° the axis located 1/3 chord from leading edge. At Re=200 motions where positive thrust is generated, thin outperform airfoils. higher Re significant gains could be achieved both in generation propulsive efficiency using a thicker section low amplitude. locations =0.5 Re=20 000. Little variation performance found camber. underlying physics behind alteration between high numbers has been explored comparing viscous Navier–Stokes inviscid panel method results. role edge vortices to key observed variation.