NUMERICAL SIMULATION OF SUBSONIC TURBULENT FLOW OVER NACA0012 AIRFOIL: EVALUATION OF TURBULENCE MODELS

Year 2017, Volume: 35 Issue: 1, 133 - 155, 01.03.2017

Seyed Mostafa Mousavı Navvab Shafıeı Abdolrahman Dadvand

Abstract

Subsonic turbulent flow over NACA0012 airfoil at the Reynolds number of 3×106 and different angles of attack (from -12º to 20º) is simulated using OpenFOAM. The flow is assumed ort steady and two-dimensional. Different turbulence models including Spalart-Allmaras, realizable k-ɛ and k-ω Shear Stress Transport (SST) are employed and their accuracy evaluated through the comparison ort h results with the available experimental data. The main focus has been put on the two regions around the airfoil, namely, the transition region and the turbulent region that are of high importance in the evaluation of computational fluid dynamics (CFD) codes. Hence, the laminar to turbulent transition point was determined at various Reynolds numbers in order to get accurate results ort he drag coefficient. It was found that by increasing the angle of attack, the accuracy of all the turbulence models used in the OpenFOAM software would reduce. In addition, the Spalart-Allmaras model showed highest accuracy compared with the other models tested in the present research. In fact, these turbulence models are unable to detect the point where the transition from laminar to turbulent flow occurs and thus have deficiency in determining the accurate flow quantities. Therefore, in both the theoretical and empirical studies the transition effects should be taken into account especially in critical analyses.

Keywords

Subsonic, NACA0012 airfoil, turbulence models, transition region, computational fluid dynamics, OpenFOAM.

References

• [1] Saniei Nejad M., Mani M., (2014) Numerical comparison between physics of transitional flow and full turbulent flow around classical airfoil of NACA0012 at subsonic and transonic regimes, Journal of Fluid Mechanics and Aerodynamics 2, 63–87. (In Persian)
• [2] Bacha W.A., Ghaly W.S., (2006) Drag prediction in transitional flow over two-dimensional airfoils, 44th AIAA AeroSpace Sciences Meeting and Exhibit, Reno, Nevada, USA. doi: 10.2514/6.2006-248.
• [3] Johansen J., (1997) Prediction of laminar/turbulent transition in airfoil flows, RisØ National Laboratory, Roskilde, Denmark.
• [4] McCroskey W.J., et al., (1987) A critical assessment of wind tunnel results for the NACA0012 airfoil, U.S. Army Aviation Research and Technology Activity: Nasa Technical Memorandum 42, 285–330.
• [5] Maksymiuk C.M., Pulliam T.H., (1987) Viscous transonic airfoil workshop results using ARC2D, 25th AIAA Aerospace Sciences Meeting, and Exhibit, 12–15 January 1987, Reno, Nevada, USA. doi: 10.2514/6.1987-415.
• [6] Arias O., Falcinelli O., Fico N., Elaskar S., (2007) Finite volume simulation of a flow over a NACA0012 using Jameson, Maccormack, Shu and Tvd Esquemes, Mecanica Computational 26, 3097–3116.
• [7] Barter G.E., (2008) Shock capturing with PDE-based artificial viscosity for an adaptive, higher-order discontinuous Galerkin finite element method, PhD Thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA.
• [8] Batchelor G.K., (1967) An introduction to fluid dynamics. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK.
• [9] Versteeg H.K., Malalasekera W., (2007) An introduction to computational fluid dynamics: The finite volume method, 2nd ed., Pearson Education Limited, ISBN: 978-0-13-127498-3.
• [10] Saniei Nejad M., (2009) Fundamentals of turbulent flows and turbulence modeling, Danesh Negar Press, Tehran, Iran. (In Persian)
• [11] Schmitt F.G., (2007) About boussinesq's turbulent viscosity hypothesis: Historical remarks and a direct evaluation of its validity, Comptes Rendus Mécanique 335, 617–627. doi: 10.1016/j.crme.2007.08.004.
• [12] Deck S., Duveau P., Espiney P., Guillen P., (2002) Development and application of Spalart–Allmaras one equation turbulence model to three-dimensional supersonic complex configurations, Aerospace Science and Technology 6, 171–183. doi: 10.1016/S1270-9638(02)01148-3.
• [13] Spalart P.R., Allmaras S.R., (1992) A one-equation turbulence model for aerodynamic flows, AIAA Paper, No. 92–0439. doi: 10.2514/6.1992-439.
• [14] Deck S., Hallard R., (2001) Numerical simulation of separated flows in nozzles, 37 eme Colloque d'Aerodynamique Appliquee, 28-30 March 2001, Arcachon, France.
• [15] Gacherieu C., Weber C., (1998) Assessment of algebraic and one-equation turbulence models for the transonic turbulent flow around a full aircraft configuration, AIAA Paper, No. A98–32457. doi: 10.2514/6.1998-2737.
• [16] Rogers S.E., Roth K., Nash S.M., Baker M.D., Slotnick J.P., Whitlock M., Cao H.V., (2000) Advances in overset CFD processes applied to subsonic high-lift aircraft, AIAA Paper, No. A00–39874. doi: 10.2514/6.2000-4216.
• [17] Wilcox D.C., (1993) Turbulence modeling for CFD. DCW Industries, California, USA. ISBN: 0-9636051-0-0.
• [18] Launder B.E., Spalding D.B., (1974) The numerical computation of turbulent flows, Computer Methods in Applied Mechanics and Engineering 3, 269–289. doi: 10.1016/0045-7825(74)90029-2.
• [19] Hassanzadeh A., Saadat Bakhsh M., Dadvand A., (2014) Numerical study of the effect of wall injection on the cavitation phenomenon in diesel injector, Engineering Applications of Computational Fluid Mechanics 8, 562–573. doi: 10.1080/19942060.2014.11083307.
• [20] Marzouk O.A., Huckaby E.D., (2010) Simulation of a Swirling Gas-Particle Flow Using Different k-epsilon Models and Particle-Parcel Relationships, Engineering Letters, 18:1, EL¬_18_1_07.
• [21] Shih T.H., Liou W.W., Shabbir A., Yang Z., Zhu J., (1995) A new k-ɛ eddy-viscosity model for high Reynolds number turbulent flows, Computers & Fluids 24, 227–238. doi: 10.1016/0045-7930(94)00032-T.
• [22] Yeh C.L., (2012) Numerical investigation of the heat transfer and fluid flow in a carbon monoxide boiler, International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 55, 3601–3617. doi: 10.1016/j.ijheatmasstransfer.2012.02.073.
• [23] Menter F.R., (1994) Two-equation eddy-viscosity turbulence models for engineering applications, AIAA Journal 32, 1598–1605. doi: 10.2514/3.12149.
• [24] Eca L., Hoekstra M., (2011) Numerical aspects of including wall roughness effects in the k-ω SST eddy-viscosity turbulence model, Computers & Fluids 40, 299–314. doi: 10.1016/j.compfluid.2010.09.035.
• [25] Abbott I.H., von Doenhoff A.E., (1959) Theory of wing section. Dover Publishing, New York, USA.
• [26] Boutilier M.S.H., (2011) Experimental investigation of transition over a NACA0018 airfoil at a low Reynolds number, PhD Thesis, University of Waterloo, Ontario, Canada.
• [27] Silisteanu P.D., Botez R.M., (2010) Transition flow occurrence estimation: A new method. Journal of Aircraft 47, 703–708. doi: 10.2514/1.44698.