Prediction of Static Aerodynamic Hysteresis on a Thin Airfoil Using OpenFOAM

The paper presents computational prediction of aerodynamic hysteresis loops in static conditions for a two-dimensional aerofoil that was used as a cross-section profile for a rectangular wing with an aspect ratio of five, tested in the TsAGI T-106 wind tunnel at a Reynolds number of Re 6 × 10 ⁶ and a Mach number of M 0.15. Tests in the wind tunnel showed that minor changes in the curvature of the leading edge of the thin aerodynamic profile lead to a significant increase in the maximum lift coefficient when significant hysteresis loops appear in the aerodynamic characteristics of the wing. The computational predictions of stall aerodynamics presented in this paper are made for a two-dimensional profile using the OpenFOAM open-source code to simulate a flow based on the unsteady Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes equations using the Spalart–Allmaras turbulence model. The calculation results confirm the existence of loops of static aerodynamic hysteresis and bistable structures of the separated flow, and the results are qualitatively similar to the results observed experimentally on the wing with a finite aspect ratio.