An experimental study of a turbulent wing-body junction and wake flow

An incompressible turbulent flow around the wing-body junction formed by a 3:2 semi-elliptic nose/NACA 0020 tail section and a flat plate is considered. Mean and fluctuating velocity measurements are performed adjacent to the wing and up to 11.56 chord length downstream. Results indicate that the characteristic horseshoe vortex flow structure is elliptically shaped, forming the primary component of the streamwise vorticity. The streamwise development of the flow distortions and vorticity distributions is strongly dependent on the geometry-induced pressure gradients and resulting flow skewing directions. It is also found that the trailing vortex leg flow structure scales on the maximum thickness of appendage. A momentum deficit factor correlates the observed trends in mean flow distortion magnitudes and vorticity distribution. (AIAA)