Computation of turbulent wake flows in variable pressure gradient

Transport aircraft performance is strongly influenced by the effectiveness of high-lift systems. Developing wakes generated by the airfoil elements are subjected to strong pressure gradients and can thicken very rapidly, limiting maximum lift. This paper focuses on the effects of various pressure gradients on developing symmetric wakes and on the ability of a linear eddy viscosity model and a nonlinear explicit algebraic stress model to accurately predict their downstream evolution. To reduce the uncertainties arising from numerical issues when assessing the performance of turbulence models, three different numerical codes with the same turbulence models are used. Results are compared to available experimental data to assess the accuracy of the computational results. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.