A review of numerical and experimental studies of the anti-fairing
Zeno Belligoli (Aerodynamics)
Richard P. Dwight (Aerodynamics)
Georg Eitelberg (Flight Performance and Propulsion)
Sampath R. Srikumar (Wind Energy)
David E. Faleiros (Transport Engineering and Logistics)
Michiel van Nesselrooij (Aerodynamics)
Olaf van Campenhout (Aerodynamics)
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Abstract
An anti-fairing is a concave deformation of the wall around a wing-body junction that can decrease the aerodynamic drag through the activation of a propulsive force generated by the interaction of the curved concave shape and the high-pressure region in proximity of the wing leading-edge. Although this mechanism is well understood, the dynamics of the interaction between the anti-fairing and the junction flow remain largely unexplored. This work brings together all the numerical and experimental studies of the anti-fairing to investigate its effect on turbulent quantities and the robustness of its design to changes to the incoming flow parameters, and to estimate the drag change with respect to a normal wing/flat-plate configuration. It is found that the interaction of the streamwise pressure gradient generated by the anti-fairing with the incoming boundary layer substantially reduces the shear responsible for viscous drag. Furthermore, no significant influence of the incoming boundary layer thickness on the anti-fairing performance is observed. However, a direct drag measurement with a force balance casts some doubts on the possibility to achieve large drag reductions.