Numerical Investigation on the Reynolds Number Effects of Supercritical Wing

Supercritical wing is widely used in modern transport aircrafts, whose aerodynamic characteristics are rather sensitive to Reynolds number. The aerodynamic design of large airplane mainly depends on the wind tunnel, which is time consuming and costly especially for high Reynolds number test. This paper aimed to investigate the transonic Reynolds number effects of supercritical wing by numerical simulation method. Flows over a supercritical wing were numerically investigated, the three-dimensional Navier-Stokes equations were solved with structure grids by utilizing the Spalart-Allmaras (S-A) turbulence model, with Reynolds numbers varying from 3.0×106 to 50×106 per mean aerodynamic chord and attack angles from-2 degree to 8 degree at cruise Mach numbers 0.76. Simulated results showed that the aerodynamics of supercritical wing including lift, drag and pitch moment changed linearly with the logarithm of Reynolds number, and the upper surface pressure distribution are much more sensitive than lower surface.