CFD INVESTIGATION OF THE NEAR-SURFACE STREAMLINE TOPOLOGY ON A SIMPLE NONSLENDER DELTA WING

Abstract

In this study, a non-slender simple delta wing was investigated numerically by using RANS with SST kappa - omega turbulence model and the results were compared with experimental data to validate the simulation accuracy of the Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) approach. The delta wing configuration has a straight wing, with thickness 3 mm, chord length 101.6 mm, wingspan 254 mm, 30 degrees beveled angle, and 40 degrees sweep leading edge. Effect of angle of attack on the near-surface patterns of the delta wing was interpreted in terms of streamline topology, particularly bifurcation lines, as well as contours of streamwise and transverse velocity components, and also vorticity contours on the surface at the angle of attack starting from 5 degrees to 17 degrees with Reynolds number of 1x10(4). The leading-edge vortices (LEV) developed at the angle of 5 degrees, the vortex breakdown happened first time at the angle of 7 degrees and moved upstream direction and reached around x=0.5c at 10 degrees. With the increasing angle of attack further, vortex breakdown moved to upstream a substantial distance and finally, the stall occurred at an angle of attack at 17 degrees.