Measurement of Unsteady Aerodynamic Characteristics of a Heaving Wing in a Low Reynolds Number Flow

The objective of this study is to determine the two-dimensional unsteady aerodynamic forces and moment acting on a heaving wing in a uniform flow using a wind tunnel. However, it is difficult to measure the aerodynamic forces acting on the heaving wing due to measuring device oscillation and the large inertial force of the wing model. In this study, a new type of wind tunnel test, named ‘‘heaving wind tunnel,’’ was developed. Here, the wing model remains stationary as the wind tunnel oscillates with a heaving motion. The advantage of this experimental method is that the measurement results are unaffected by the large inertial force acting on the oscillating wing model. Therefore, the wing model can be used in the same way as in steady state experiments. The normal force, thrust and pitching moment coefficients of a heaving airfoil were measured using the heaving wind tunnel test developed in this study. Through flow visualizations and pressure measurements, we found that the rapid drop in normal force coefficient after it reached its maximum value was due to a large growing leading-edge vortex.