Low-Speed Aerodynamic Characteristics of Supercritical Airfoil with Small High-Lift Devices from Flow Pattern Measurements

In this paper, the lift coefficients of SC-0414 airfoil are estimated by applying modified Yamana’s method to the flow visualization results, which are obtained by utilizing the smoke tunnel. The application of the modified Yamana’s method is evaluated with two calculation methods. Additionally, the lift estimation, wake measurements, and numerical simulations are performed to clarify the low-speed aerodynamic characteristics of the SC airfoil with flaps. The angle of attack was varied from −5° to 8°. The flow velocity was 12 m/s and the Reynolds number was 1.6 × 10⁵. As a result, the estimated lift coefficients show a good agreement with the results from reference data and numerical simulations. In clean condition, the lift coefficients calculated from the two methods show quantitative agreement, and no significant difference could be confirmed. However, the slope of the lifts calculated from y_s is higher and closer to the reference data than those obtained from sc, where y_s denotes the height where the distance from the streamline to the reference line is the largest, and sc denotes the displacement of the center of pressure from the origin of the coordinate, respectively. In the case of flaps, the GFs have an observable effect on the aerodynamic performance of the SC-0414 airfoil. When the height of the flap was increased, the lift and drag coefficients increased. The installation of a GF with a height equal to 1% of the chord length of the airfoil significantly improved the low-speed aerodynamic performance of SC airfoils.