In this paper an improved immersed boundary method is used for simulating sinusoidal pitching oscillations of a symmetric airfoil. Immersed boundary methods because of using a fixed Cartsian grid are well suited for such moving boundary problems. Two test cases are used to validate the proposed method and the effects of oscillation frequency and amplitude on the flow field are investigated. Flow field vorticity and kinetic energy contours are reported in this paper. It is found that the deflected wake start to be appeared for Strouhal number more than 0.4 at a fixed pitching amplitude 0.71. A chaotic flow can be observed at oscillation amplitude 2.80, for a fixed Strouhal number, 0.22. Kintic energy contour shows that for Strouhal number 0.1, the airfoil performs work and transfers momentum to flow but the fluid energy loss due to the enlargement of flow separation zone decreases the momentum and kinetic energy behind the airfoil. Deficit momentum and kinetic energy behind the airfoil results in drag force increasing. By increasing the oscillation frequency and amplitude more momentum transfers to flow filed behind the airfoil which results in drag force decreasing.

Keywords: Immersed Boundary Method, Vorticity contours, Flapping airfoil, Kinetic energy contours

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