Study of Conformal Vortex Generators via Wake Survey

Vortex generators are commonly used in the aircraft industry as a flow control device. A novel low-profile vortex generator, termed a conformal vortex generator (CVG), may provide flow control without the parasitic drag commonly associated with traditional vortex generators. This experimental study varies the CVG configurations on an airfoil model (LA203A) in a wind tunnel and assesses their performance with wake surveys. The configurations were varied by changing the length, width, and the thickness of the CVGs. The test speeds were also varied, thus changing the chord length based Reynolds number. The CVGs were able to generate strong coherent structures that persisted into the far wake region (~5 chord lengths downstream). The strength of those coherent structures increased proportional to Reynolds Number, and the intensity of the coherent structures was sensitive to the CVG geometry. This presentation will compare the coherent structures through velocity profiles and overall drag production from the different CVG configurations as well as compare with canonical configurations (no CVGs and a backward facing step with varying chord-wise locations).