Calculation of the Pressure Distribution on a Pitching Airfoil with Application to the Darrieus Rotor

摘要

An analytical model leading to the pressure distribution on the cross section of a Darrieus Rotor Blade (airfoil) has veen constructed. The model is based on the inviscid flow theory and the contribution of the nonsteady wake vortices was neglected. The analytical model was translated into a computer code in order to study a variety of boundary conditions encountered by the rotating blades of the Darrieus Rotor. Results indicate that, for a pitching airfoil, lift can be adequately approximated by the Kutta-Joukowski forces, despite notable deviations in the pressure distribution on the airfoil. These deviations are most significant at the upwind half of the Darrieus Rotor where higher life is accompanied by increased adverse pressure gradients. The effect of pitching on lift can be approximated by a linear shift in the angle of attack proportional to the blade angular velocity. Tabulation of the fluid velocity about the pitching-only NACA 0015 allowed the principle of superposition to be used to determine the fluid velocity about a translating and pitching airfoil. (ERA citation 09:033013)