Simulating the interaction of a strake vortex with an aircraft wing

Kurzfassung

On modern commercial aircraft flying at high angles of attack the flow on the main wing downstream of the area where the slat is cut out for the nacelle-wing integration is prone to massive flow separation. To counteract this effect, the engines are often equipped with small vortex generators called strakes. The longitudinal vortices generated by these strakes interact with the boundary layer of the main wing upper surface having a stabilizing effect on it. The stabilizing effect of the vortex/boundary-layer interaction is not fully understood yet. Therefore, a better understanding of the involved physics is crucial to optimize the design of the strake/slat-cut-out/main-wing configuration. The aim of the project is to establish a numerical simulation method to predict and understand the strake-vortex/boundary-layer interaction for an airfoil at a high-lift configuration and at flight Reynolds numbers.