Calculation of unsteady airfoil loads with and without flap deflection at -90 degrees incidence

A method has been developed for calculating the viscous flow about airfoils with and without deflected flaps at -90 deg incidence. This unique method provides for the direct solution of the incompressible Navier-Stokes equations by means of a fully coupled implicit technique. The solution is calculated on a body-fitted computational mesh incorporating a staggered grid method. The vorticity is determined at the node points, and the velocity components are defined at the mesh-cell sides. The staggered-grid orientation provides for accurate representation of vorticity at the node points and for the conservation of mass at the mesh-cell centers. The method provides for the direct solution of the flow field and satisfies the conservation of mass to machine zero at each time-step. The results of the present analysis and experimental results obtained for a XV-15 airfoil are compared. The comparisons indicate that the calculated drag reduction caused by flap deflection and the calculated average surface pressure are in excellent agreement with the measured results. Comparisons of the numerical results of the present method for several airfoils demonstrate the significant influence of airfoil curvature and flap deflection on the predicted download.