A comparison of plunging- and pitching-induced deep dynamic stall on an SD7003 airfoil using URANS and LES simulations

Dynamic stall is a fluid dynamics phenomenon experienced by airfoils undergoing a rapid variation in their operating conditions, such as in the presence of pitching or plunging motions, when the effective angle of attack exceeds the static stall angle. The flow field near the airfoil is characterized by the presence of a strong clockwise vortex originating near the leading edge, which is convected downstream along the suction side, generating a low-pressure region and a continuous rise in lift. A controlled form of dynamic stall is involved in the flight mechanism of some natural flapping-wing flyers, and this is currently a matter of interest for the design of biomimetic micro aerial vehicles. Dynamic stall is also responsible for limitations in helicopters' forward-flight velocity, it can lead to flutter in fixed-wing aircraft and vibration-induced damage in wind turbine blades. In this work, 2D URANS and LES numerical simulations have been carried out for incompressible dynamic stall flow cases over an SD7003 airfoil at a Reynolds number of 6⋅104 and at a reduced frequency of 0.25, with the aim of assessing the validity and the role of low fidelity simulations in dynamic stall prediction, at operating conditions relevant for micro air vehicles. Simulations have been conducted both in the case of periodic pitching and plunging, in order to investigate similarities and differences in the resulting flow fields and aerodynamic coefficients. The effect of the reduced frequency on the agreement between 2D URANS and LES has also been evaluated for an airfoil under periodic plunging.