Pitching Airfoil Boundary Layer Investigations

Abstract

The present paper describes an experiment performed in a transonic wind tunnel facility where a new test section has been developed especially for the investigation of the unsteady flow above oscillating airfoils under dynamic stall conditions. Dynamic stall is characterized by the development, movement and shedding of one or more concentrated vortices on the airfoils upper surface. The hysteresis loops of lift-, drag- and pitching moment are highly influenced by these vortices. To understand the very complicated unsteady flow involved, a detailed knowledge of the instantaneous flow fields is of crucial importance. With the application of the described measuring techniques it is expected to gain more insight into the problem. Results from these tests are ready for comparison with numerical data.