CFD investigation of bio-mimicry in aerodynamics

Abstract

Improvement in the aeronautical domain is a must as it is for every other field. In this thesis, a modification on a 1m chord length NACA0012 airfoil is applied, by transforming its linear leading edge to a tubercle leading edge (TLE) by mimicking the humpback whale flippers. Many modifications are available, in this research, we are interested in testing the impact of a combination having for amplitude (A) 0.05c and wavelength (λ) 0.2c on the lift coefficient, drag coefficient and stall angle. The testing was carried in a CFD software, Ansys fluent, in a C-type mesh domain and geometry for a Re of 3*106 at angle of attacks varying from 0 to 16 degrees. The SST k-ω turbulence model from the RANS family was used to obtain the lift and drag coefficients. The results revealed, an increase in lift coefficient from 0.83 to 1.32 and a decrease in drag coefficient from 0.12 to 0.096 in the case of the modified airfoil, while the stall angle was also increased from 12 to 14 degrees. So in general, the modification (0.05c, 0.2c) showed a very good performance improvement for the NACA0012.