Influence of Leading-Edge Protuberances on the Flow Physics of Stall

This paper investigates the underlying flow physics of static stall on a finite wing in the presence of bio-inspired leading-edge protuberances (LEPs) at a Reynolds number of 6×10⁴ . We present Unsteady Reynolds Average Navier-Stokes (URANS) flow simulations of the static stall behavior of a three-dimensional wing (spanning from wall to wall) with a sinusoidal leading edge shape of different amplitudes and wavelengths. Numerical simulations have been performed using the incompressible pisoFoam solver with the Langtry-Menter k-ω-SST turbulence model, available in the OpenFOAM framework, to capture the differences in the underlying flow physics of four different wing geometries. The unsteady temporal evolution of the flow structures is studied and compared to that obtained for the base configuration of an SD7003 wing without LEPs. Improved mean lift generation in the post-stall regime is observed due to the effect of LEPs for all four cases compared to the base case. The present study will be extended to capture the impact of LEPs on the dynamic stall phenomenon for pitching motion in our future study. The findings of this study can directly benefit the design of a bio-inspired leading-edge control device applicable to many engineering systems.