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Aerodynamic Coefficients

For various reasons (to compute its performance, motion, etc.) as aerospace engineers we would like to compute the forces and moments acting on aircraft. We want to make our lives easier by coming up with formulations that are easy enough to work with. We will be considering conventional aircraft only. Conventional aircraft have a dedicated part to create aerodynamic forces, called wing.

In reality every part of the aircraft is surface is subject to air pressure that contributes to the total forces and moments. To make our lives easier we only consider the forces generated by the main wing and the tail surfaces. We loose some accuracy by doing that, but for conventional airfraft the results we get are very close to the real numbers.

Another trick we do to simplify equations is that instead of the actual distributed forces we work with equivalent concentrated forces (R). We don't loose any accuracy here, the vector R represents the distributed forces exactly without any error. R vector is represented using three scalar quantities (L and D forces and the location of cp, x_cp).

R force creates a moment on a fixed point (leading edge for example) on the aircraft due to having a moment arm (x_cp). Pitching moment and x_cp are related, if one of them changes the other one changes as well. In this case instead of using these three scalar quantities (L and D forces and x_cp) we can replace x_cp with pitching moment with respect to a fixed point. In this case the R vector can equivalently be represented by L, D, and M_LE (if it is moment with respect to the leading edge). Other fixed points such as quarter chord point can be used as well.

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What we need to do now is to find some mathematical formulas that give numerical vaues of these three quantities (L, D, and M for longitudinal motion) for the type of aircraft we have for all possible flight conditions (altitude, speed, angle of attack, ...). In other words we are looking for mathematical functions that contain the effects of all the factors that contribute to aerodynamic forces. For example for the lift force we are looking for a function of following variables (and many others). We need similar functions for D and M as well.

There are a lot of factors that affect these forces (airfoil thickness, camber, wing planform shape, etc.) and every one of these factors should be included in the equations for the results to be useful. Effects of some factors are predictable and very easy to model. For example air density (denoted by Greek letter rho) has a direct effect on the forces. In other words all aerodynamic forces change linearly with air density. This means if the air density is changed by a factor "a", then the forces change by the same factor "a". In this case we can include the effect of density by including it as a multiplicative term in our equations.

Density of air in terms of mass per volume. Another factor whose effect on the forces is predictable is the flow speed. Both theoretical and experimental studies show that the relation between aerodynamic forces and flow speed is quadratic. This means if the flow speed is changed by a factor "a", then the forces change by the square of the same factor "a". In this case we can include the effect of V_inf by including V_inf squared as a multiplicative term in our equations. In this case the equation becomes

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There is one other thing that can be modeled by a simple linear relation, and that is the size of the aircraft. Consider two aircraft with exactly the same design, but with different dimensions. One is a scaled model of the other. The forces on these two aircraft will be scaled as well. In this case the effect of the size of the aircraft can be taken out of the equation by introducing the wing planform area S:

With the factor 1/2 introduced above we get the dynamic pressure in the aerodynamic equations, which can be considered as the kinetic energy of fluid particles. The remaining factors in the f_3 function are not easy to model with simple analytic functions. Therefore we leave that function as it is and call it an aerodynamic coefficient.

is the lift coefficient that depends on the shape of the airfoil, wing, viscosity and compressibility effects of the air, etc.

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Dynamic pressure has the physical unit of force per area. S is wing surface area. So dynamic pressure multiplied by wing surface area gives a force. Left hand side of the equations are force as well, this means aerodynamic coefficients (C_L, C_D, C_Y) are dimensionless. From the above equations we can write them as

Now the problem of finding equations that give aerodynamic force values becomes the problem of finding the nondimensional values of aerodynamic coefficients. If you want to find the lift force for a particular aircraft flying with a certain configuration (flaps, spoilers, ailerons, elevator, etc are all set to certain positions) at a certain angle of attack you need to know the value of C_L for that particular configuration. The benefit of using nondimensional coefficients for this purpose instead of the dimensional force (L) is that you can find the values of coefficients by doing experiments on much smaller scale models.

In order to find the forces for all possible configurations you need to have a huge database of aerodynamic coefficients for all those configurations. There are different ways to obtain these values. One is to actually do experiments and measure all these forces with sensors. ALso there are advanced computer programs that can calculate these values by solving complex fluid mechanics equations. Obviously doing real experiments for large aircraft is not possible. But much smaller scale models can be built and tested in wind tunnels to find these values. In this example put the small model in a wind tunnel and measure the lift force for a particular configuration. C_L will be

Once you find C_L for the small model you can compute the lift force for the real aircraft as follows:

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Aerodynamic coefficients are nondimensional, that means their values are the same for both the small scale wind tunnel model and the full scale real aircfraft. Dynamic pressure for the wind tunnel test conditions and the wing surface area of the small scale test model. Dimensional lift force you measure in the tunnel. You take the C_L value you obtained in the test into the following equation to estimate the force on the real aircraft: The same lift coefficient as before.

Dynamic pressure for the real flight condition and the wing surface area of the full scale real aircraft. Lift force acting on the real aircraft.

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Considering all the possible configuration changes you need a huge database to cover all possible options. Multi dimensional databases are created for that.

Data given by the empirical software. Data obtained in wind tunnel to verify the data given by the software. Here test data agrees with the software data.

If there is a difference between the test data and software data, you modify the software data to make it closer to the test data.

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Considering the number of variables and that you need to find the values for combinations of all possible values for all these variables, for a fairly realistic database you need millions of values for your aerodynamic coefficients. Now the quesiton is how can we make sure that aerodynamic coefficients of a real aircraft with a wing span of 50 m flying at a speed of 800 km/h will be the same as the aerodynamic coefficient of a scaled model with a wing span of 50 cm flying in a wind tunnel at a different speed? The answer is that you need to check the Reynolds and Mach numbers. If they are the same (or in the same range) then you can be sure that the coefficients you obtained on a scale model can be used to correctly estimate the forces and moments on the real aircraft. But what are these Reynolds and Mach numbers?? These will be discussed below. Suppose that a 100 m long ship is released in sea at a speed of 10 km/h, it will continue moving for some time before it eventually stops. Then consider a 10 cm long model released at the same speed. It will come to stop much sooner (even you measure the distance in terms of length of the model).

So far we have been talking about pressure forces that form the aerodynamic forces. By definition pressure forces are perpendicular to the surface. Due to viscosity of air there are some tangential forces as well. The total force acting on the airfoil is actually the sum of the pressure and friction forces. For a large aircraft flying at high speeds the pressure forces are much greater than the friction forces and hence the friction forces may be neglected. But for a very small model under a slower flow the importance of friction forces increases.

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There are various factors that determine when the friction forces become significant or negligible. Reynolds number is a nondimensional number that practically tells this. A very important factor is how sticky the fluid is, measured by its viscosity. From our point of view this is not an issue since we almost always consider aircraft flying in air. Other factors are the speed of the flow and the size of the object.

You can also consider it as the ratio of the green arrows to the red arrows in the above figure. If the Reynolds number is large that means the friction forces can be neglected. If it is low, especially less than one than that means the frictions forces are the dominant forces acting on the object.

For a small bird Re may be on the order of 100, for a fly, on the order of 1, and for micro organisms moving in water it may be on the order of 0.0001.

Reynolds number is the ratio of inertia forces (perpendicular forces) to viscous forces (tangential forces). Since it is a ratio of two forces it has no units. If the ratio is much greater than one, that means the tangential forces are negligible: In this case stickyness of the fluid has almost no effect. As a result the fluid cannot stay together and that's why you get a splashy response when you drop an object into a fluid.

If Reynolds number is low (less than one) than the tangential forces are greater. In this case stickyness of the fluid is very important. As a result the fluid wants to stick, it stays together and that's why you get a very smooth and non-splashy response when you drop an object into a fluid. You cannot predict flow conditions by checking viscosity only, you need to consider the Reynolds number. A bacteria swimming in water has a very low Reynolds number, on the order of 10^-5. This means the bacteria will feel too much fluid friction, it will compare to an insect swimming in honey.
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In the above experiment the Reynolds number is changed by changing the viscosity of the fluid. Other parameters that effect the Reynolds number (V and D) are the same in these four cases. You will get the same results if you achieve the above Reynolds numbers by changing other things like the speed of the jet, or the diameter of the flow.

Reynolds number (ratio of inertial to viscous forces) determines the characteristics of the flow. For low Re flow viscous forces are important, meaning the fluid wants to stay together (just like honey). This results in laminar flow. In laminar flow streamlines are parallel to each other, at any given instant the velocity of the flow will be the same. We call this steady flow.

In contrast for high Re flow, viscosity becomes negligible. The fluid doesn't want to stay together anymore. Just like in the animations we saw the flow becomes random and chaotic. This means the streamlines get mixed up and constantly change randomly.

Since the streamlines change constantly the flow is unsteady and such flows are called turbulent flows.
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Consider the viscous flow animation on wikipedia:

Suppose that a ball of diameter 1 cm is dropped into honey and water at a speed of 10 m/s.

15<2000 meaning that the second test with honey results in laminar flow whereas for first test Re1=100000 and that tells that we get turbulent flow. This agrees with what we see in the animation. Remember that viscosity is very important in getting a laminar or turbulent flow, but it is NOT the only factor. So we can't decide on the flow type by just considering the viscosity, we need to know the Re #. Now suppose that a dust particle with a diameter of 10^-5 m drops into water at a speed of 1 m/s. The Re # is then: Obviously we get a laminar flow for this case. In other words even though we have water, the little particle dropped into it will not cause any splashes and will smoothly sink into it as in the bottom animation. Again, just because water is not as sticky as honey, you can't say that it will always cause a turbulent flow.

Now to complete the story, also consider a ball of diameter 1 m dropped into honey at a speed of 100 m/s. The Re # for this case can be found as:

This means we get a turbulent flow, honey will be splashing around randomly, just like the top animation.

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In this figure you see lift coefficients measured for the NACA 4412 airfoil in a wind tunnel. The tests were conducted as various Reynolds numbers. Remember the Re # formula is:

As long as you use air in the tunnel, rho and mu stays constant. You may change them a little bit by changing the temperature, but you can't change the Re # too much by just changing the temperature. If you want to change the Re # by a factor 150 as seen here, just changing the flow speed will not be sufficient either. Because if you try to increase the speed that much you will change the Mach number significantly, which will introduce compressibility effects. So you need to change V and c_bar together to vary the Re # that much. In other words you start with a very small c_bar (small wing) at a very low speed and get a low Re # that way. Then you bring in a much bigger wing and test it at a much greater speed to obtain a much bigger Re #. The last question (#5) in AE172_Spring2011_MT1.pdf is related to this. L and D data obtained at different Re #'s are given. You need to use the data for the correct Re # to find the answer.

When something moves in air, it disturbs the air and creates pressure waves. These waves travel at the speed of sound. If the disturbing object approaches the speed of sound, the waves cannot get away fast enough and they start to accumulate. Accumulated pressure waves form a shock wave. Shock waves and supersonic flow are explained in detail in Aerodynamics 2 course. All you need to know for this course is that as the speed of flow increases air becomes more and more compressible. Like viscosity, there is a single nondimensional number that tells you whether you need to be worried about compressibility or not. This is the Mach number. If M<0.3 then you have an incompressible (subsonic) flow. For the remainder of this course we will always assume that it is the case.

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As the Mach number approaches 1, cp moves and as a result the pitching moment acting on the aircraft is not zero anymore. This causes the aircraft to start rotating around the pitch axis very rapidly.

Normally the elevator is used to control the pitching moment, but in a supersonic flow, elevators become useless due to shock waves. To overcome this problem and have a controllable aircraft at supersonic speeds, they proposed to use all moving horizontal stabilizers. In other words the entire horizontal stabilizer is used as an elevator.

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Even when the aircraft is flying at M<1, local speed of the flow around the A/C may exceed M = 1 resulting in shock waves. To be able to fly as fast as possible without getting the drag increase due to shock waves you should design your aircraft such that the speed at which shock waves start to form is as high as possible. This speed is called the critical Mach number, which is always less than 1 (why?). On old aircraft critical Mach number may be as low as 0.6. Today modern aircraft can fly at speeds close to M=0.9 without getting substantial drag increase. The optimum cruising speeds are less than M=0.85. Formation of shock waves on the wings can be delayed by using special airfoil designs called supercritical airfoil. Critical Mach number is the greatest limit on the speeds of modern airliners. That's why the ideal cruising speeds of all modern airliners are between M = 0.8 and 0.85. Sure you can make an aircraft that can fly at M = 1, but for a very little benefit in speed you may have to consume twice as much fuel, which nobody wants, especially at today's fuel prices.

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3D Effects
We have talked about how aerodynamic forces are created on a 2-dimensional airfoil. On many aerodynamic data sources you can find values of aerodynamic coefficients given for airfoils. Data given for an airfoil refers to an idealized wing with infinite span.

The assumption here is that we have a wing section with the same airfoil at every y location and the wing has infinite wing span. In this configuration nothing changes along the y direction and the resultant aerodynamic force for every airfoil is the same as shown in this figure. This idealized configuration is referred to as a 2D wing. In reality however aircraft have finite wing spans and have 3D wings.

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If you look at the situation at either end of a wing (wing tip) you can easily convince yourselves that the high pressure air from below the wing will jump up to fill the low pressure zone at the top. In inner sections the wing separates the air at different pressure levels and the high pressure air at the bottom can push the wing up, creating the lift force. At the wing tips however the physical separation ends and this allows the two flows to mix. High pressure air from below swirls up to the low pressure area above forming a rotating flow called a vortex. Since at the wing tip the pressure equalizes no lift force can be created, but relatively strong drag force acts on the wing at the tips. As you move from the centerline to the wing tips, lift force reduces and drag force increases. In other words the resultant aerodynamic force is tilted backwards as shown with blue arrows in this figure.

Normally vortices would be created at the leading and trailing edges as well, but the freestream flow prevents that. High pressure air below the wing can only escape to the low pressure area through the wing tips. For wings with very high sweep angles vortices can be created at the leading edge as well as shown below.
Freestream flow

Freestream flow

Vortices are created at the tips only for a rectangular wing (sweep angle is zero)
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Leading edge vortices visible on a condorde during landing. Note that the lift coefficient during landing is close to maximum, meaning the pressure difference is too much. Strongest vortices are created in such conditions.

In 2D case since all the force vectors on all the airfoil sections are the same you see just one vector in the side view.
But in the 3D case due to high pressure air at the lower surface jumping up to the upper surface at the wing tips we loose lift at the wing tips and get more drag force. In other words the R vector gets tilted towards the drag direction as you get closer to the wing tips.

If you look at the lift force distribution from the front you see something like this:

For the infinitely wide 2D wing you get the same lift force everywhere.

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In 2D flow the only thing that determines the aerodynamic performance (how much lift force is obtained for how much drag force) is the airfoil. But in 3D flow wing planform is important as well for aerodynamic performance. In other words two wings with the same airfoil and same total surface area, but with different planforms will have different aerodynamic performance.

Even if the two wings shown above have the same airfoil and surface area, their lift and drag forces for the same flow conditions (speed and angle of attack) will be different. The one on the right is aerodynamically more efficient because it has a smaller chord length at the wing tips. This means the region where vortices are created is smaller and hence the wing tip vortices (wake turbulence) will be weaker. As a result there will be less lift loss and less drag increase.

2D wing data for an airfoil can be gathered in wind tunnel by making the wing extend through the entire width of the test section as shown above. This leaves no gaps at the wing tips and hence the lower and upper flows cannot mix. In such a test almost constant lift force can be obtained at every y location throuhout the entire wing span just like in a 2D wing.

In order to obtain 3D data in a wind tunnel you need to leave enough space on all sides so that you don't measure any wall effects.

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Losses in lift and increases in drag due to wing tip effects can be improved by using a more slender wing planform.

If you compare the areas under the blue and red lift distributions you will find out that for the wing on the left you loose a bigger percentage of the 2D lift. Wing tip effects depend on how slender the wing planform is, which is measured by the aspect ratio.

On powered aircraft drag force is balanced by the thrust provided by the engines. However gliders have no engines that can provide thrust force. Therefore minimizing drag on gliders is crucial and that's why they use very high aspect ratio wings.

High aspect ratio wings are good for aerodynamic efficiency, but for large aircraft it is not practical to use them due to structural concerns. If you used a high AR wing on an airliner it would look like this. It looks funny, but more importantly such an aircraft would have a very large wing span. This would create problems at airports. Also making such a huge wing strong enough is not easy. Probably it will end up being much heavier compared to an aircraft with a normal wing, and this defeats the purpose of having a high AR wing.

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High AR means that you have a wing that is closer to an ideal 2D wing. In the limit as AR goes to infinity a 3D wing approaches a 2D wing. And as AR gets smaller you get farther away from a 2D wing. As you can see in the below CL vs alpha plot at a given alpha a low AR wing has a smaller lift coefficient than a high AR wing. Low AR wings however stall at higher angles.

Before stall lift coefficient When the angle of attack reaches stall angle flow separates and increases almost linearly with the lift coefficient does not increase anymore. Furthermore due to angle of attack. Since there is separation flow becomes unsteady. no separation flow is steady.
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