Experimental investigation of 3-D separation over swept and tapered wings at a moderate Reynolds number

An experimental investigation exploring the effect of sweep angle on tapered and untapered finite span, cantilevered wings was performed using oil flow visualizations and load cell measurements. For all experiments, the wing profile was NACA 0015 and the semi-span aspect ratio was 2. Five planforms were chosen to systematically compare the effects of tapering by sweeping either the leading edge, trailing edge, or both. Two untapered models were tested, one which was unswept and one which was swept back with a sweep angle of 30 degrees, as well as three tapered models, each with a taper ratio of 0.269. The first tapered model had a straight leading edge and a trailing edge swept forward 30 degrees, the second had a straight trailing edge and a leading edge swept aft 30 degrees, and the third had its quarter chord line swept aft 30 degrees. Surface mean topology and aerodynamic forces are presented for a range of angles of attack between 0 degrees to 30 degrees at chord Reynolds number 247,500.