Experimental ivnestigation on flow fields of viscous fluid around two-dimensional wings and comparison with computational results

To examine the flow field of a viscous fluid around the trailing edge of a wing with respect to the Kutta condition or the Joukowski hypothesis, an experimental investigation into the velocity fields around two-dimensional (2D) wings NACA0012 and NACA4412 was carried out using an X-type hot-wire anemometer in a wind tunnel and the method of colored milk injection in a circulating water channel. The results of these investigations revealed that the flow of a viscous fluid at the trailing edge of a 2D wing is tangential to the face on the pressure side, and that the flow is very slow or reversed on the suction side due to separation when the angle of attack is greater than 7.5°. By flow visualization, a Kármán vortex street was found in the wake of both wings (NACA0012 and NACA4412) when the angle of attack was 5°. These results show that the ordinary Kutta condition with respect to the direction of outflow at the trailing edge is not necessarily satisfied in a viscous fluid, but the Kutta condition with respect to the pressure at the trailing edge is satisfied as usual. Numerical results, which have been obtained as the solution of Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes equations, show good agreement with above-mentioned experimental results. Therefore, CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics) simulation has proved to be very effective for studying steady viscous flow around the trailing edge of a 2D wing.