Effect of Blade Cambering on Dynamic Stall in View of Designing Vertical Axis Turbines

This paper presents large-eddy simulations of symmetric and asymmetric (cambered) airfoils forced to undergo deep dynamic stall due to a prescribed pitching motion. Experimental data in terms of lift, drag, and moment coefficients are available for the symmetric NACA 0012 airfoil and these are used to validate the large-eddy simulations. Good agreement between computed and experimentally observed coefficients is found confirming the accuracy of the method. The influence of foil asymmetry on the aerodynamic coefficients is analysed by subjecting a NACA 4412 airfoil to the same flow and pitching motion conditions. Flow visualisations and analysis of aerodynamic forces allow an understanding and quantification of dynamic stall on both straight and cambered foils. The results confirm that cambered airfoils provide an increased lift-to-drag ratio and a decreased force hysteresis cycle in comparison to their symmetric counterpart. This may translate into increased performance and lower fatigue loads when using cambered airfoils in the design of vertical axis turbines operating at low tip-speed ratios.