Blowing active flow control on FFA-W3-270 airfoil model

Abstract

This paper discusses about the installation of active flow control technique on FFA-W3-270 Airfoil model. The main objective is to investigate either this flow control technique can delay or promote the flow separation that occurs on the model. Flow separation is detachment of the airflow from the airfoil surface, which may lead to loss in lift and increase in pressure drag. Active flow control is a technique used to add energy to the flow by expenditure of power from other source which are able to delay the flow separation. The aim of this study is to investigate the effect on flow separation when blowing technique is used as an active flow control method. In this experiment, the air from compressor passed through pressure regulator has been channeled to pressure tubing of FFA-W3-270 in order to create blowing conditions on the model surface. During the experiments, the blowing has been conducted at three different location across the wing. The experiment has been conducted at two Reynolds numbers of Re = 0.8 × 106 and 1.0 × 106, the angle of attack was varied from 0° until 14°. The result has shown that the blowing flow control has significantly delay the flow separation at low angle of attack but it promotes the flow separation at high angle of attack and Reynolds number.