Effect of spanwise groove on the dynamic stall characteristics of an airfoil

Numerical simulations are conducted to investigate the effect of triangular groove on the dynamic stall characteristics of a NACA 0012 airfoil at a Reynolds number of 135,000. The right-angled triangular grooves are placed at either 10%, 25%, or 50% chord locations on the suction and have depths of 0.025c and 0.05c, measured normal to the surface of the airfoil. The solutions that are second order accurate in time and space are obtained using pressure-based finite volume solver and the 4-equation transition SST turbulence model viz. γ- Re θt is used to predict transition and viscous stresses accurately. The airfoil is in harmonic pitch motion about its quarter-chord with a maximum circular frequency of 18.67 rad/s. The results suggest that the presence of a groove, except for the deeper grove at 0.5c, quickens the dynamic stall, but with smaller rise in C l,max and a less severe fall in lift at the stall. The mean C l value during the downstroke is improved by up to 8% for the deeper groove at 0.25c, reducing the hysteresis in lift significantly. The grooves at 0.1c, 0.25c, and 0.5c also reduce the drag by 4%, 7%, and 9% during a complete cycle, with subsequent improvements of 54%, 69%, and 63% in the l/d ratio. The current finding can be thus used to enhance the performance of flapping wing MAVs, helicopter rotors, and wind turbine blades as these applications encounter the dynamic stall phenomena frequently.