L. Djenidi et al., A COMPUTATIONAL STUDY OF AEROFOIL MANIPULATORS IN LAMINAR AND TURBULENT-FLOW, European journal of mechanics. B, Fluids, 13(6), 1994, pp. 661-683
A numerical investigation dealing with the influence of an aerofoil: m
anipulator within a turbulent or laminar boundary layer is presented.
The first part of the study concerns the Validation of the numerical c
ode based on the finite volume method. It is demonstrated that computa
tions are in good agreement with available experimental results, and v
ery limited previous numerical results, for single aerofoil manipulato
rs. Parametric turbulent flow calculations predict the correct variati
on in device performance, in terms of resulting skin friction reductio
ns, with the height and thickness of the manipulator. Computations for
tandem configurations also correctly predict the improvement in skin
friction reduction over that produced by a single device and the manne
r in which this varies with tandem spacing. Similar trends are predict
ed for laminar flow conditions, which have yet to be studied experimen
tally, and there is evidence to suggest that the devices work best in
turbulent flow if laminar flow is maintained in their wakes. Subsequen
t studies of the effect of manipulator profile on performance have rev
ealed that larger benefits can be obtained from asymmetric devices, pa
rticularly at flight representative Mach numbers. Indeed it would appe
ar that an inverted flattopped profile may offer the greatest skin-fri
ction reductions in flight conditions.