Numerical Study of Heat Transfer Around the Small Scale Airfoil Using Various Turbulence Models

Abstract

A numerical investigation of low-Reynolds number flows with thermal effect around the MAV airfoils using various turbulence models, including an algebraic Baldwin-Lomax model, Spalart-Allmaras one equation, and two equation (k-ω and SST-k-ω) turbulence models, is presented. First, the thermal effect on the aerodynamic efficiency is studied for flow around a rectangular MAV wing, based on the NACA0012 airfoil section at low-aspect ratio (AR = 2) and an angle of attack equal to 0°. Second, details of the thermal effect are limited to the two-dimensional NACA0012 airfoil with chord length of 3.81 cm. This study shows that the improvement of aerodynamic efficiency (increase lift and reduce drag) is achieved by the generation of a temperature difference between extrados and intrados of the airfoil (by cooling the upper surface and heating the lower surface). The numerical results obtained with various turbulence models are in good agreement with experiment data, except the k-ω turbulence model. These results are performed with the CFD-FASTRAN code, using the fully implicit scheme for time integration and the upwind Roe flux difference splitting scheme for space discretization augmented by a high order Osher-Chakravarthy limiter.