Reynolds Number Effects Investigation of Supercritical Airfoil Based on EFD and CFD

This study aimed to investigate the transonic Reynolds number effects of supercritical airfoil by EFD and CFD method. An experiment was conducted in NF-6 wind tunnel, to obtain the pressure distribution and aerodynamic coefficients of a typical supercritical airfoil through pressure measuring, with Reynolds numbers varied from 3.5×106 to 1.0×107 per airfoil chord, Mach numbers from 0.6 to 0.8, angles of attack from 0° to 8°. Also, flows over the supercritical airfoil were numerically studied; the two-dimensional Navier-Stokes equations were solved with structure grids by utilizing the Spalart-Allmaras (S-A) turbulence model, with Reynolds numbers varied from 2.0×106 to 50×106 per airfoil chord and Mach numbers from 0.6 to 0.8. Computational results compared well with experimental results. It is shown that the upper surface pressure distribution of supercritical airfoil including the location and intensity of shock wave and trailing-edge pressure coefficient, changed apparently with variable Reynolds numbers, when shock-induced trailing-edge separation existed. It is also noticed that the lift coefficient increased, drag and pitching moment coefficient decreased as Reynolds number increasing. Results implied that Reynolds number effects should be considered during the early designing stage and optimization of large aircrafts applied supercritical airfoil.