A New Study on the Gap Effect of an Airfoil with Active Flap Control Based on the Overset Grid Method

Rotors with active flap control have considerable potential in reducing vibration and noise and improving aerodynamic performance. However, due to the movement of the flap, there are unavoidable gaps between the components that will lead to significant changes in the aerodynamic characteristics. Moreover, considering the difficulties in motion modeling and the accuracy of the simulation of the flow field in such a narrow gap, carrying out related research is challenging; thus, there has been inadequate targeted research, and that which does exist requires supplementation. To carry out this challenging flow field simulation, the overset assembly algorithm proposed by the author in previous research is adopted in the present study. It is used to successfully assemble the narrow gap, and the accuracy of the simulation is fully verified by comparing the results with the actual experimental results and a grid study. Furthermore, to compensate for the lack of research and experiments on the gap effect, cases considering a complete range of gap widths from an absence of a gap to a width of 10% of the chord length are set up and carried out under the following three case groups: steady cases with a fixed trailing-edge deflection angle, unsteady cases in which only the trailing-edge flap is flapping, and full-motion cases characterized by the periodic flap of the main airfoil and the trailing-edge flap. The results show that the gap increases the drag of the trailing-edge flap and decreases aerodynamic efficiency, especially at low speeds and high angles of attack. Nevertheless, when the gap is unavoidable, there is a range of the gap width that makes unapparent the decrease of aerodynamic efficiency. Moreover, the decrease of aerodynamic efficiency can be reduced as much as possible by a well-designed gap region geometry to ensure that the airfoil and the trailing-edge flap fit together when moving.