Detached Eddy Simulations of an Airfoil in Turbulent Inflow

Paper in proceedings, 2009

The effect of resolving inflow turbulence in detached eddy simulations of airfoil flows is studied. Synthetic turbulence is used for inflow boundary condition. The generated turbulence fields are shown to decay according to experimental data as they are convected through the domain with the free stream velocity. The subsonic flow around a NACA 0015 airfoil is studied at Reynolds number 1.6 × 106 and at various angles of attack before and after stall. Simulations with turbulent inflow are compared to experiments and to simula- tions without turbulent inflow. The results show that the flow is sensitive to the intensity of the resolved turbulence. Especially, when the flow is close to stall, separation can be triggered if the turbulence is resolved. By resolving the inflow turbulence better agreement with experimental data can be achieved.