Experimental investigation of delta wing flow behaviour under pitching motion

Abstract

This paper presents an experimental study of delta wing flow behaviour under pitching motion. The aim is to investigate the pressure distribution of the flow over sharp-edged delta wing. The flow behaviour over the upper surface of a delta wing is mainly governed by the leading edge vortices. Angle of attack variation is applied to simulate the pitching motion of the delta wing. The project focuses on estimating the pressure distribution for a sharp-edged delta wing with 65° sweep angle. Wind tunnel testing is done at two flow velocities, which are 13.5 m/s and 15 m/s. The trend of pressure coefficient (cp) against the spanwise location is then analysed based on four aspects, which are the variations of Reynolds number, chordwise location, spanwise location and angle of attack. The results show that the pressure at the vicinity of leading edge is much lower than the pressure plotted near to the wing centre.