Numerical Simulation of the Vortex Shedding Behind an Airfoil-Spoiler Configuration

Abstract

Spoilers are widely used on aircrafts as lateral control devices. Despite their wide usage, very little numerical and theoretical information exist. Numerical simulation of the full unsteady, compressible Euler's equations over the NACA 23012 airfoil with spoiler is performed using a hybrid Least-Squares finite element/finite difference method coupled to the Newton-Raphson's linearization technique. The flow patterns behind the spoiler are presented. The pressure coefficient over the upper and lower surfaces are successfully compared to previously published experimental work. The vortex shedding due to the existence of the spoiler is strong specially at high deflection angles. Convection of the vortices will affect the performance of the tail and so a future study of the wing-tail interaction is needed.

A Novel Reverse Hinge Spoiler for Flight Loads Control

“…From this study, it was found that as the spoiler is deflected, the change in lift between the airfoil with the spoiler compared to that without a spoiler increases, highlighting the spoiler's effectiveness. There have also been numerous computational and experimental studies [9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19] investigating the effect of spoiler position, spoiler deflection angle, and spoiler chord on the aerodynamic characteristics of different airfoil geometries. Mashud et al [9] investigated a NACA2415 airfoil equipped with spoilers located at 0.5C, 0.6C, 0.7C, 0.8C, and 0.9C to determine the spoiler's effectiveness.…”

“…They found that the typical vortex shedding behavior of a spoiler was similar to that of bluff body shedding. The flow field was characterized by a highly turbulent fluctuating wake, and the strength of the wake increased with a spoiler deflection angle [13,14]. Askar et al [15] investigated numerically, using Ansys14 software, the effect of the spoiler position, and the gap between the spoiler and wing.…”