Blade Sections in Streamwise Oscillations into Reverse Flow

A low-Reynolds number rectilinear analog of the retreating blade problem is considered by computationally and experimentally studying a NACA0012 blade in spanwise oscillation in a free stream. Three-dimensional hybrid RANS-LES simulations with spanwise periodic boundary conditions and experimental flow visualization support the description of experimental direct force measurements for a wide range reduced frequencies and advance ratios, including fully reversed flow conditions. A fixed incidence of 6 degrees is taken as a nominally attached-flow case, and agrees reasonably well with Isaacs' theory. A fixed incidence of 20 degrees is taken as a fully-separated case, and departs markedly from inviscid theory, and even more so from quasi-steady approximation. Experimental-computational comparison shows a computational overprediction of lift relative to experimental results, at moderate advance ratios. Agreement in fully reversed flow is, however, quite good.