Effect of Amplitude and Mean Angle of Attack on Wake of an Oscillating Airfoil

The unsteady wake of an EPPLER 361 airfoil in pitching motion has been investigated in a subsonic wind tunnel by hot-wire anemometry. The airfoil was given the pitching motion about the one-quarter chord axis at reduced frequency of 0182. Streamwise mean velocity profiles (wake profiles) were investigated at several vertically aligned points behind the airfoil at one-quarter chord downstream distance from trailing edge. Oscillation amplitude and mean angle of attack were varied to determine the effects on wake profiles. When the maximum dynamic angle of attack was below the static stall angle of attack, weak effects on wake were found by increasing oscillation amplitude and mean angle of attack. But, for higher angles of attack strong unsteady effects were appeared on the wake.

Numerical Evaluation of the Contribution of Inertial and Aerodynamic Forces on VAWT Blade Loading

A two-dimensional numerical simulation of the contribution of both inertial and aerodynamic forces on the blade loads of a Vertical-Axis Wind Turbine (VAWT) is presented. After describing the computational model and the relative validation procedure, a complete campaign of simulations - based on full RANS unsteady calculations - is proposed for a three-bladed rotor architecture characterized by a NACA 0021 airfoil. For each analyzed angular velocity, the combined effect of pressure and viscous forces acting on every rotor blade are compared to the corresponding centrifugal forces, due to the revolution of the turbine, thus achieving a preliminary estimation of the correlation between overall rotor efficiency and structural blade loads.

Analysis and Flight Test for Small Inflatable Wing Design

This article discusses stress analysis and the shape characteristics of the inflatable wing, and then introduces the design method of inflatable wing, in order to accurately approximate a standard airfoil. It specifically analyses the aerodynamic characteristics of the inflatable wing with the method of CFD, along with comparing to standard airfoil, afterwards we carries out the manufacture of inflatable wing and the flight test.

Proposal of a Means for Reducing the Torque Variation on a Vertical-Axis Water Turbine by Increasing the Blade Number

This paper presents a means for reducing the torque variation during the revolution of a vertical-axis water turbine (VAWaterT) by increasing the blade number. For this purpose, twodimensional CFD analyses have been performed on a straight-bladed Darrieus-type rotor. After describing the computational model and the relative validation procedure, a complete campaign of simulations, based on full RANS unsteady calculations, is proposed for a three, four and five-bladed rotor architectures, characterized by a NACA 0025 airfoil. For each proposed rotor configuration, flow field characteristics are investigated at several values of tip speed ratio, allowing a quantification of the influence of blade number on flow geometric features and dynamic quantities, such as rotor torque and power. Finally, torque and power curves are compared for the three analyzed architectures, achieving a quantification of the effect of blade number on overall rotor performance.