Reynolds Number Scaling of the Propulsive Performance of a Pitching Airfoil

What is it about?

We investigate the Reynolds number dependence of the performance metrics of a pitching airfoil using computational methods. We confirm that the scaling for thrust, power and efficiency derived in a recent study of heaving and pitching teardrop airfoils holds well. We show that the empirically determined coefficients in these scalings depend on the square root of Reynolds number, suggesting laminar flow scaling. We also demonstrate the effects of amplitude profile thickness variations through the scaling arguments.

Featured Image