Abstract:

Slotted flap is one of high lift devices. It considered as a moving part of the airfoil which is used as a control instrument in a form of elevator, rudders and ailerons. The main focus of work is to investigate the effect of flap chord, gap and overlap on aerodynamic characteristic of NACA 24012 airfoil. The model was tested with 20% C, 30% C and 40% C single slotted flaps at zero angle of attack. The dynamic mesh and user defined function is applied to control the flap distance with respect to wing at any position. The simulation was done by solving the governing equations (Continuity, Reynolds Averaging Naveir- Stokes and Energy Equation) in 2-D using Fluent analysis at Reynolds number of 3.1x〖10〗^6. Based on the results presented, larger increment of lift coefficient is obtained with the larger flap chord, but this increase is accompanied by a drag penalty. Furthermore, the loss of lift coefficient associated with larger extending flap at 3% C had a very detrimental effect on the attainable lift coefficient. The simulation result also shows that an optimum gap is 1% C in order to derive the maximum lift capability from the flap model. The code is validated against field measurements to show how close the CFD model simulates the reality.

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