Lift and stall behavior of a co-flow jet airfoil: a detailed analysis

This study investigates the aerodynamic performance of a co-flow jet (CFJ) airfoil with the objective of enhancing lift and reducing drag through active flow control. National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics 0018 airfoil was employed for the computational fluid dynamics (CFD) study. This work examines the effect of slot placement, coefficient of jet momentum, and CFJ metrics namely injection velocity, injection mass flow rate, and injection height on the variation of aerodynamic coefficients. Additionally, the tradeoff between aerodynamic coefficients and associated power consumption was investigated. The study indicates that positioning injection slots near regions of minimum static pressure on the upper surface of the leading edge increases the coefficient of lift and mitigates power consumption. A maximum improvement in lift coefficient up to 30% was achieved, while the stall margin increased by 25%. The findings also indicate that CFJ configurations with higher jet momentum coefficients exhibit an improvement in lift-to-drag ratios by approximately 40% with a 15% reduction in drag in comparison with those of conventional airfoil. This research underlines the transformative potential of CFJ technology in optimizing aerodynamic performance with minimal energy impact, suggesting promising applications for enhancing aircraft efficiency and sustainability.