The aerodynamic performance and wake development of a NACA 0012 airfoil fitted with morphing trailing edges were studied using experimental and computational techniques. The NACA 0012 airfoil was tested with morphing trailing edges having various camber profiles with the same trailing edge tip deflection. The aerodynamic force measurements for the airfoil were carried out for a wide range of chord-based Reynolds number and angles of attack with trailing edge deflection angle of β= 5◦ and 10◦. The experiments were validated with steady-state RANS simulation using Spalart-Allmaras turbulence model. Experimental results show that the camber profiles of the morphing trailing edges significantly affect the airfoil’s aerodynamic performance and effectiveness in improving the lift coefficient further by tailoring the morphing profiles. Hot-wire measurements showed that the downstream wake development can also be influenced as a result of changing the morphing trailing edge camber profile. It was found that highly cambered trailing edge profiles provide higher lift coefficients and increased maximum lift coefficient compared to moderately cambered profiles while the lift-to-drag ratio slightly decreases. Velocity contour plots show that the separation near the trailing edge is further delayed at high angles of attack for airfoils with highly chambered morphing trailing edge. This study shows that the effective design space of the morphing trailing edges can be expanded taking into account the optimal aerodynamic performance requirements. The study also suggests that in order to achieve optimum aerodynamic performance, independent surface morphing of the suction and pressure surface camber will be required to delay the onset of flow separation.
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