Aerodynamic Modelling of the Airfoil Immersed in Two-Dimensional Jet Flow

Abstract

In order to study the aerodynamic interaction of the airfoil and jet flow, the free streamline model and the panel method are combined to develop a fast calculation method for the airfoil in two-dimensional inviscid jet flow. The vortex strength and position of the jet boundary are determined by using the free streamline model and the constant total pressure difference assumption, the circulation of the airfoil is solved by the vortex panel method, and the whole process is coupled by relaxation iteration. Firstly, the convergence and effectiveness of the present method are verified. Next, the influence of the length ratio of jet height to airfoil chord, the velocity ratio of jet velocity to freestream velocity, and the ground effect on airfoil aerodynamics are studied. The results show that the aerodynamic characteristics of the airfoil in finite width jet flow and in freestream have a large difference, and it is important to consider the jet deflection for jet/airfoil interaction. In jet flow, the velocity ratio can be regarded as an aerodynamic similarity parameter for the airfoil. When the jet flow is deflected, the airfoil will not only generate lift but also drag, and the ground effect can be used to decrease drag. The developed method in this paper can not only capture the jet deflection but also has higher calculation efficiency than Computational Fluid Dynamic (CFD), which is beneficial for the preliminary design of a powered-lift device.