Effect of Longitudinal Vortex on Boundary Layer State and Separation on NACA Symmetric Foil

Vortex generators have been widely used in aerodynamics to control the separation of boundary layers. In such application (Angele and Muhammad, 2005) vortex generators are embedded in the boundary layer and the vortex height, with regards to the wall, is of the boundary layer thickness. The objective of this configuration is obviously far from being the effects of a single longitudinal vortex (generated upstream by an elliptical plan form profile) on the turbulent boundary layer shape over a Naca0015 symmetric foil at different incidences at high Reynolds number 5 10⁵. The vortex is situated outside the boundary layer (ten times the BL thickness over the wall) taking into account the small value of the thickness in our hydrodynamic application. Obviously, this situation is optimum as the vortex delays separation and increases the maximum lift but introduces drag penalty at small incidence. This is nevertheless frequently encountered in hydrodynamic applications (hub vortex upstream of a rudder) and of interest. To point out the mechanism of the boundary layer manipulation, both global efforts using gauge balance and velocity measurements using LDV and PIV have been performed and compared with and without vortex. The base flow is an APG boundary layer characterized by a predominant wake area. Effect of the vortex is analyzed via the shape factor both in inflow and outflow regions. The longitudinal vortex suppress the hysteretic loop classically described in this Reynolds number range (Djeridi et al., 2009) but an increase of the drag is observed in the range of incidence just before stall. Velocity measurements indicated that, for incidences near the stall appearance, the shape factor is decreased both in the inflow and in the outflow regions. Even for large incidences, in the inflow region the value of the shape factor is equivalent to the one found in the turbulent BL over a flat plate. In this region the vortex modifies the equilibrium state of the BL as attested by the Clauser parameter. Even for large distances between the vortex and the wall, the ability of the vortex to suppress the detachment of the BL is observed on the evolution of the backflow coefficient. This effect is greater pronounced in inflow area near the trailing edge region where the flow is locally reattached due to the high momentum fluid displacement.