Application of the full e^N transition prediction method to aerodynamic characteristics calculation of accurate airfoils

Without considering the transition information in the simulation of flow around airfoils, accurate aerodynamic characteristics could not be obtained. We used the full, not the simple, e^N transition prediction method to couple with the Navier-Stokes solver in order to improve the calculation accuracy. In section 1, we pointed out that three codes including the RANS code, the laminar boundary layer code and the linear stability code were needed to accomplish the flow transition prediction. In section 2, a method similar to Refs [10] and [11] was introduced to couple the three codes. First, the RANS solver provided the wall pressure coefficient c_p for solving the laminar boundary layer equations. Then, we used the linear stability code to analyze the laminar boundary velocity profiles, and find out the transition point with the e^N method. Finally, we returned the transition information to the solution of RANS equations. Repeating the above process, the flow transition point can be detected automatically. We take airfoils NACA64A015 and NLF415 as our numerical examples. Figs. 3, 4 and 5 show preliminarily that our computed results are in good agreement with experimental data.