Flow past a Flat Plate with a Vortex/sink Combination

Abstract

An attempt was made to model the so called leading edge vortex which forms over the leading edge of delta wings at high angles of attack. A simplified model was considered, namely that of a two-dimensional, inviscid, incompressible steady flow around a flat plate at an angle of attack with a stationary vortex detached on top, as well as a sink to simulate the strong spanwise flow. The results appear to agree qualitatively with experiments. A comparison was also made between the lift and the drag of this model and the corresponding results for two classical solutions: (1) that of totally attached flow over the plate with the Kutta condition satisfied at the trailing edge only: and (2) the Helmholtz solution of totally separated flow over the plate.