NAVIER-STOKES APPLICATIONS TO HIGH-LIFT AIRFOIL ANALYSIS

This article presents applications of a compressible Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes method to the calculation of flows about a transport-ty pe multielement airfoil. The unstructured-mesh method used utilizes mu ltigrid techniques for computational efficiency and includes a selecti on of turbulence models. The airfoil used to benchmark the computation al capability is a three-element airfoil configured for landing for wh ich extensive experimental data have been acquired both on and off the airfoil surface at high Reynolds numbers, Comparisons of computationa l results vs experimental data shown here include traditional airfoil performance calculations due to configuration changes. Also discussed are detailed comparisons of computational results and experimental dat a obtained in the flap well region to assess the applicability of exis ting turbulence models to the nap slot flow. Performance comparisons a re conducted for configurations tested at chord Reynolds numbers of 5 x 10(6) and 9 x 10(6) and the flap well study is based on data obtaine d on a similar airfoil at a chord Reynolds number of 5 x 10(5).