An Experimental Investigation Onto the Effect of Two Design Methods of Leading-Edge Tubercles on the Aerodynamic Performance of a High Lift Airfoil at Low Reynolds Number

Abstract Inspired by the tubercles on the pectoral flipper leading-edge of the humpback whale, the most acrobatic of baleen whales, sinusoidal leading-edge have been used as a passive flow control method to enhance the stall characteristics of lifting surfaces in different applications. They are supposed to reduce the lift gradually during the stall with an increase in the post-stall lift, however, their enhancement ability in pre- and post-stall is highly dependent on the geometrical parameters and the flow regime. Two different design schemes: nonlinear shear transformation design scheme (NLST) and channelled-like scheme, of the sinusoidal leading edge of the high lift airfoil S1223 are tested and compared with the unmodified airfoil at angles of attack of −6 to 30 degrees experimentally inside a wind tunnel at low Reynolds number Re = 100,000. Experimental data show that Tubercles implemented on S1223 at such a flow regime with either design scheme enhance the post-stall characteristics as much as a 42% increase in lift at some angles for NLST with pre-stall lift penalties. NLST, compared with baseline and channelled models, exhibit a significant increase in aerodynamic efficiency which make it more preferable for wind turbines applications.