Experimental and Numerical Investigation of a Wing-Body Junction Flow

This article presents a study of a simplified wing-body junction. The main purpose of this work is to provide insights on the abilities of some industrial and research numerical approaches to accurately reproduce the flow for that type of configuration. To this end, a test case based on a NACA012 wing is designed at Rec 2:8 10. An experimental database was created and used as validation data for the evaluation of Reynolds-averaged Navier– Stokes and large-eddy simulation computations. The sensitivities of the configuration to flow conditions such as the incoming boundary-layer thickness and the angle of attack are explored. The study points out the limitations of the Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes models investigated, which are highly sensitive to the grid density. Conversely, the large-eddy simulation is shown to be able to reproduce the experimentally observed flow features within the junction.