Investigation of three-dimensional dynamic stall using computational fluid dynamics

Numerical simulation of three-dimensional dynamic stall has been undertaken using computational fluid dynamics. The full Navier-Stokes equations, coupled with a two-equation turbulence model, where appropriate, have been solved on multiblock strucured grids in a time-accurate fashion. Results have neen obtained for wings of square planform and of NACA 0012 section. Efforts have been devoted to the accurate modeling of the flow near the wing tips, which, for this case, were sharp without tip caps. The obtained results revealed the time evolution of the dynamic stall vortex, which, for this case, takes the shape of a capital omega Omega spanning the wing. The obtained results compare well against experimental data both for the surface pressure distribution on the wing and the flow topology. Of significant importance is the interaction between the three-dimensional dynamic stall vortex and the tip vortex. The present results indicate that once the two vortices are formed both appear to originate from the same region, which is located near the leading edge of the tip. The overall configuration of the developed vortical system takes a Pi-Omega form. To our knowledge, this is the first detailed numerical study of three-dimensional dynamic stall appearing in the literature.