Numerical Study on Aerodynamic Characteristics of Flapping-Airfoil in Low Reynolds Number Flows

Aerodynamic characteristics of a flapping airfoil in low Reynolds number flows are numerically studied using the unsteady, incompressible Navier-Stokes flow solver with a two-equation turbulence model. For more efficient computation of unsteady flows over flapping airfoil, the flow solver is parallel-implemented by MPI programming method Unsteady computations are performed for low Reynolds number flows over a NACA four-digit series airfoils. Effects of pitching, plunging, and flapping motion with different reduced frequency, amplitude, thickness and camber on aerodynamic characteristics are investigated. Present computational results yield a better agreement in thrust at various reduced frequency with experimental data.