Numerical study of the effect of trailing edge bluntness on highly turbulent hydrofoil flow

Abstract

Turbulent trailing edge flow over control surfaces continues to be of interest to many designers and researchers alike due to the associated complex and adverse phenomena. In this study a two dimensional NACA0015 airfoil was modified at the trailing edge by vertically `cutting' at various locations along the chord axis thereby changing the Reynolds number based on the trailing edge height, while keeping the chord-length based Reynolds number fixed at 3.49 million. The numerical results show the bluntness parameter at onset of vortex shedding agree well with published data for sections having a blunt trailing edge. A parametric study suggests that increasing the trailing edge height tends to reduce the frequency of vortex shedding. Also, the variational trend of wake formation lengths with increasing trailing edge Reynolds number resembles that of flow past a circular cylinder. The Strouhal number for this blunt section is approximately 0.09.