Experimental and Numerical Study of the Unsteady Wake of a Supercritical Airfoil in a Compressible Flow

ABSTRACT Experimental investigations were carried out to study the wake profile of a supercritical airfoil at Mach numbers of 0.4 and 0.6 in a pitching motion. Both static and dynamic tests were conducted in a tri-sonic wind tunnel. Flow field inside the wake was measured by hot wire anemometry at downstream distances of 0.25 and 0.5 times the chord length from trailing edge. All data were taken at mean incidence angle of 3º; the amplitude of oscillation was 3º and the oscillation frequencies were 3 and 6 Hz. Moreover, numerical study was applied for the same airfoil under similar experimental test conditions; finally, wake profiles obtained from both numerical and experimental methods were compared.