Proper Orthogonal Decomposition of NACA-0012 in the Wake of a Square Bluff Body

The vortex shedding from a square bluffy body has been seen to impact the aerodynamic performance of a NACA-0012 when placed upstream of the airfoil, at a Reynolds number of 40 x 10³. This study aims to understand the impact of the vortex shedding from a bluff body on the aerodynamic performance of the NACA-0012 airfoil. Aerodynamic load experiments were conducted in a water tunnel facility at a Reynolds number of 40 x 10³. Particle image velocimetry (PIV) was used to measure the velocity flow field around the bluff body and over the airfoil. Proper Orthogonal Decomposition (POD) was used to identify the coherent structures and their impact on the aerodynamic performance of the airfoil. The shed vortices from the wake of the bluff body influence the flow behavior over the airfoil and impacting the aerodynamics performance of the airfoil.