Publication

Abstract : This paper investigates the aerodynamic performances of an airfoil morphed into another airfoil configuration at a Reynolds number of 3 × 106 using discrete element method. Morphing airfoil configurations were achieved by adjusting three locations along with the chord of NACA 0012. Out of the three, two were chosen at the maximum camber and maximum thickness positions corresponding to that of the target airfoil (NACA 23012). The third position was fixed at 80% of the chord. Six morphed airfoil configurations were generated, and their performances were numerically computed between 0° and 16° angle of attack using ANSYS Fluent v15.0. Spalart–Allmaras and transitional shear stress transport models were used to evaluate the aerodynamic performance of the morphed airfoil configurations. Over this range of angles of attack, morphed configurations were ordered according to three factors—high lift, low drag and high cl/cd. The airfoil can morph from one to another during different phases of flight to give an overall optimum aerodynamic performance. Additionally, the effect of smoothening the sharp corners at the morphing locations is also investigated.