Passive Separation Control on a Symmetric Airfoil via Elastic-Layer

The passive control of flow-separation at averaged Reynolds Number (Re=3.42×105) using self-adapting flexible-flaps in the upper side of the wing, is presented. The two-way Fluid-Structure Interaction (FSI) in an elastic-layer up on the airfoil (NACA 0012) is investigated numerically by Coupling between the Transient Structural and Fluid Flow (Fluent) in ANSYS-Workbench14.0. During the fluid-structure interaction, the transient deformation of the elastic-layer provokes the modification of the flow topology at large-scale. There are reductions of the size and intensity of the vortex-shedding and an increase in the Strouhal number. This explains the increase of the lift-to-drag ratio. The study of the flap flexibility shows that the deformation of the elastic-layer and the variation of aeronautical efforts are inversely proportional to the Young Modulus.