Flow Around Curved Plates at Low Subcritical Reynolds Number: Investigation of Wake Characteristics

In this paper, numerical simulation results of flow over flat plate and curved plates at a Reynolds number of 8000 are presented. Drag coefficient and Strouhal number trends are reported at different chord length (CL)-to-diameter (D) ratios of 0, 6/13, 3/4, and 1 with varying angle of incidence (ranging from α = 0° to 30° in steps 10°). The curvature of the plate was adjusted by varying the radius of curvature keeping the chord length fixed at 40 mm. The results of this study show that the aerodynamic characteristics, viz., drag force and Strouhal number, are significantly affected by the introduction of curvature and flow angle of incidence (plate orientation). The maximum reduction of drag coefficient obtained is 58% by the introduction of both plate curvature and plate orientation. Further, it is noted that base pressure coefficient complies with the trend of the drag and the maximum flow field vorticity shows an abrupt increase in CL/D beyond 6/13.