Numerical simulation of aeroelastic response of an airfoil in flow with laminar-turbulence transition

This paper is interested in numerical simulations of the interaction of the fluid flow with an airfoil, particularly the problem of the aeroelastic response of the airfoil to a sudden gust is considered. The main attention is paid to the finite element approximations of the incompressible viscous flow over a flexibly supported airfoil. The gust is modelled using the time dependent boundary condition. The structure vibration is governed by the nonlinear system of ordinary differential equations. The flow is described using the Reynolds averaged Navier-Stokes equations, the system is enclosed by the two equation k-omega turbulence model together with the transition model based on the intermittency equation. Modelling of this laminar - turbulence transition of the flow on the airfoil surface is the main novelty of the paper. The motion of the computational domain is treated with the aid of the arbitrary Lagrangian-Eulerian method. The solution of the nonlinear coupled problem is discussed and numerically tested using a stabilized finite element method. (C) 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.