Numerical Investigation of Flow Control Feasibility with a Trailing Edge Flap

This paper concerns a numerical study of employing an adaptive trailing edge flap to control the lift of an airfoil subject to unsteady inflow conditions. The periodically varying inflow is generated by two oscillating airfoils, which are located upstream of the controlled airfoil. To establish the control system, a standard PID controller is implemented in a finite volume based incompressible flow solver. An immersed boundary method is applied to treat the problem of simulating a deformable airfoil trailing edge. The flow field is solved using a 2D Reynolds averaged Navier-Stokes finite volume solver. In order to more accurately simulate wall bounded flows around the immersed boundary, a modified boundary condition is introduced in the kω turbulence model. As an example, turbulent flow over a NACA 64418 airfoil with a deformable trailing edge is investigated. Results from numerical simulations are convincing and may give some highlights for practical implementations of trailing edge flap to a wind turbine rotor blade