Computational Simulation and PIV Measurements of the Laminar Vortical Flowfield for a Delta Wing at High Angle of Attack

The low-speed, laminar flowfield for a 70°-sweep delta wing is investigated. Solutions to the unsteady, three-dimensional, compressible Navier-Stokes equations were obtained on an unstructured grid to match results from an experiment performed in a water tunnel. The experiment was conducted with the delta wing at an angle of attack of 35° and the freestream flow at a root-chord Reynolds number of 40,700. The computational results are analyzed and compared with the experimental results in order to show how computations and experiments can be conducted in a synergistic fashion. Details about the primary vortex location, vortex burst, secondary vortex, and shear layer interaction are shown and discussed.