Numerical simulation of oscillating excitation separation flow control over airfoils

This paper presents a numerical simulation of separated flow over an airfoil at large attack angles with oscillating excitations to study separation flow control over an airfoil. The finite volume method and the SIMPLEC method were used to simulate the separated flow. The results show that an oscillating excitation adding at the airfoil surface can improve aerodynamic performance and increase airfoil lift by 18% in the given condition, and that the excitation totally changes the separation flow vortex structure over the airfoil at large attack angles and creates an unsteady separation bubble at the airfoil leading edge. 