Compressibility effects on flat-plates with serrated leading-edges at a low Reynolds number

This study evaluates the influence of a serrated leading edge on flat-plate aerodynamics at low-Reynolds-number and subsonic high-Mach-number conditions. Forces are measured for a Mach number ranging from 0.2 to 0.64 at a Reynolds number of (12,000 ± 1000). Pressure distributions are obtained under the same conditions using pressure sensitive paint (PSP) measurement. Three models are tested: a flat plate without serrations used as the baseline case and two flat plates with serrated leading edges of different wavelength-to-amplitude ratios. Results show that the aerodynamic performance of flat plates with serrations is slightly changed from the baseline case. The plate with short-wavelength serrations underperforms in terms of the lift-to-drag ratio under all the conditions compared to the baseline case while the plate with large-wavelength serrations slightly outperforms it at around the stall angle. The Mach number has little effect on the attached flow while the lift increases with the Mach number under deep stall conditions. Serrations maintain the lift even under high angle of attack conditions when Mach number varies. The two-dimensional pressure distributions and the analyses of local chordwise pressure coefficient distributions at different spanwise locations and of periodicity of spanwise pressure coefficients allow categorisation of the complex flow structures into three types. These configurations feature different types of low pressure regions downstream of troughs. The periodicity of the pattern depends not only on the angle of attack but also on the Mach number.