Title
Use of riblets to obtain drag reduction on airfoils at high reynolds number flows
Author
Khalid, M.
Institution
National Research Council Canada, National Aeronautical Establishment
Date
1988-08-30
Abstract
An investigation was carried out to study the drag reduction capabilities of riblets (commercially available) when installed on a supercritical airfoil which was aerodynamically tested in the NAE's High Reynolds Number 2 D Test Facility. The flow conditions in this test ranged from M = 0.15 to M = 0.76, and Re/ft = 1.5 X 106 to Re/ft = 8 X 106 • The airfoil with riblets exhibited less drag than a completely turbulent airfoil (without riblets) for Mach Number M ~ 0.5 and Reynolds Numbers Re/ft ~ 5 X 106 . It was found that the thinner riblet material (0.0013) gave more attractive drag results than the thicker riblet (0.0030). However, at higher Mach numbers and Reynolds number no drag reduction was observed.
Subject
Drag reduction
Reynolds numbers
Airfoils - drag reduction
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Publisher
National Research Council Canada
Access restriction
Campus only
Source
National Aeronautical Establishment, Aeronautical Note NAE-AN-53, NRC no 29459
Part of collection
Aerospace Engineering Reports
Document type
report
Rights
(c) 1988 National Research Council Canada