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Modellingwings,understandingflightandreportingresults.

OneofthegreatthingsaboutCFDisthatitallowsustomodelawiderangeofconditionsthatit
wouldbeimpossibletocaptureinasingleexperiment.Inthisexerciseyouaregoingtomodelan
aerofoilusingapremademesh,thenflyitinflowsofchangingincidencetodeterminetheliftand
dragcoefficientsoftheaerofoilasafunctionoftheoncomingangleofattack.Bylookingcarefullyat
theflowfieldyoushouldalsobeabletodeterminewhenthewingstalls,andwhattheeffectison
theliftanddrag.Thenyoucantrytomodeltheflowathighervelocityinthesupersonicregime.
Youhavealreadymeasuredthepressuredistributionaroundasupersonicaerofoilinthe9x3wind
tunnel.InthismodellingexercisethesameRAE104aerofoilprofileisused.Toenableyoutodothis
anRAE104aerofoilina3Dthinsliceatzeroincidencehasalreadybeenmeshedandisuploadedin
theWingModellingsectionoftheFluidsCourseworkModulesectionofDavidGillespiespageonthe
OsneyThermofluidsWebsite.
Torunthisopenworkbench
(start_ansysthenrunwb2inthe
newwindow),youdragaFluent
sessionontotheWorkbench.
NextopenFluentin3D.You
needtoimportthemesh,thisis
donethroughFileImport
Mesh.Onceitisinthesystem
youcanviewitasnormal.Check
wheretheinletandoutletfrom
thesystemlie.Youcanscalethe
unitstoanythatyouneed.The
systemwillsolvemorequicklyif
youMeshReorderDomain,
thistriestoreducethe
bandwidthofthesystemof
equations.Themeshesareabit
roughandreadybutshould
1MeshRAE104_0_revised3.msh
provideareasonableindication
ofthepressure,liftanddragoftheaerofoilatlowspeeds,andyoucantrytorefinethemesh.For
easysolutionrunatspeedsofunder100m/s.Wesuggestyoumakethemagnitudeoftheincoming
flow20m/sfortheangleofattacktests.Whenyouopentheboundaryconditionsboxyouwillsee
thereare2itemsnamedinletfluidair**.Thesemustbothbesetasvelocityinletboundary
conditions,andforthelowspeedflowsyoucansettheoutlettobeanoutflow.
AswewouldliketoreportliftanddragcoefficientsyouneedtosetthelengthtermintheReference
valuestobethechordofthemodelwhichis80mminthiscase,thevelocitytothefreestream
velocityandthedensitytothefreestreamdensity.FirstclickonComputefromandchooseeitherof
theinlets,andthenchangethelengthtermto80mm.

The flow is turbulent not laminar choose either the SpalartAlmaras turbulence model or the k
epsilon model these should be quick to run and is likely to be nearly as accurate as other
techniques.Thekepsilonalthoughalittleslower,seemsmorestableforthisproblem.Remember
thatthesolutionhasnotconvergeduntiltheresidualsarelowandflat.Youmayneedtoswitchoff
the convergence criteria in the Monitors Residuals section and manually stop the solution when
thecriteriaforsolutionareachieved.

Tosettheboundaryconditionwemust
setthevelocity,magnitudeanddirection
oftheflow.Ifrunningat20m/sthisstays
fixed.Torunat5degreesincidencetheX
componentiscos(5)butmaketheY
componentsin(5)asthesystemisnot
symmetricandisdesignedtoallowthe
flowtodevelopfurtheronthe
downstreamsideoftheflowdomain.
Initialisethevelocityaszeroineachcase
thisseemstobemorereliablein
producingaresult.Increasetheangleof
attackineachrunyouconductandlook
fortheonsetofstall.Itisalsointeresting
tofindthepressuredistributionaround
theaerofoil,notonlydoesthisletyou
calculatethelift,itwillallowyouto
comparethedistributionaspressure
coefficientCp=(ppinf)/0.5U2between
thesubsonicandthesupersonic
aerofoils.YoucanusetheResults
ReportsForcestofindtheliftanddrag
2BoundaryconditionsScreen
directlyrememberthatyouwantthelift
anddragnormalandparalleltotheoncomingflowsosetyourDirectionVectorappropriately.Ifyou
duplicatethesystemforeachsetofboundaryconditionsthenyouwillbeabletopullinmultiple
resultsintothepostprocessortoallowyoutocomparetheflowfeaturesmoreeasily.
Youshould:

Covertherange5toapproximately20degreesangleofattackthehighestanglesmaybe
difficulttoconverge.IfnecessarygointotheSolutionControlsandreducethepressureand
momentumterms,sothatlessofthenewsolutionisusedineachiteration.Use~4degree
intervalsuntilyouareclosetostallandthenreduceto1degree.
Foreachangleofattackcapturethepressureandvelocitydistributions,thepressure
distributionoverthetopandbottomoftheaerofoil,thelift,dragandliftanddrag
coefficients.
Plotacombinedplotofangleofattackvsliftcoefficientanddragcoefficient.Findtheslope
oftheangleofattackvsliftcoefficientgraphinthelinearportionandcompareyourresult
tothetheoreticalvalueof2.
Plotliftcoefficientagainstdragcoefficient,andcommentontheeffectoftheonsetofstall.

Itisuptoyoutodecidewhattoreport.CFDisjustlikeanyotherexperiment,weneedtodescribe
whatwehavedoneandthenprovidetheresultstobackitup.Ofcourseyouhavelimitlesspictures
availabletohelpyouexplainwhatphysicallyishappeningwhenairflowsoverawing.Wewouldbe

surprisednottofindacleardescriptionofwhyaerofoilsgenerateliftinthissectionofthewriteup
alongwiththeresultsnotedabove.

SupersonicAerofoilthisisquitetrickyandmightrequireseveralattempts.
Themodellinginthissectionistobackupyourexperimentalresults.Foryourwriteupwewantto
seeagoodwriteupoftheexperiment,resultinginaclearexplanationofwhyexpansionandshock
wavesoccuronthesurfaceofthesupersonicwing.Ialsoexpectagoodexplanationofschlieren
photographyandwhatthedifferentlycolouredregionsonthewingrepresent.Oneofthekey
thingstogetintoyourreportisacomparisonoftheshapeofthepressuredistributionoverthe
uppersideoftheaerofoilforthecaseofthesubsonicwingandthesupersonicwingandyou
shouldspeculateabouttheimplicationsofthisforanaircrafttryingtoemploythissortofwingfor
lowsupersonicspeedflow.
Modelling
Forthispartofthemodellingyouneedtosetpressureandnotvelocityboundaryconditions.Use
yourmeasurementsfromtheexperimenttodeterminetheseandsettheboundaryconditionatthe
exitofthesystemtoapressureoutlet.Attheinletyoucanseteitherapressureboundarycondition
oravelocityboundarycondition.Notethatitisusuallybettertoinitialisefromzerovelocityand
thenrunwiththesolutioncontrolparametersturneddownatthebeginningofthesimulation.You
alsoneedtochangethemodeloftheairfromaconstantdensitygastobeanidealgas.Youdothis
inthematerialssectionofthemenu.Thesolutionislikelytomuchmoreunstableunderthese
conditions.Youmaybeabletocoarsenandrefinethemeshinordertocapturetheexpansionand
shockfeaturesthatyouhaveseenduringyourexperiment.Someamazinglygoodresultswere
achievedin2014.
Whatyouarelookingtoachieveisaqualitativeresultshowingthedramaticdensitychangesduring
thepassageofflowovertheaerofoil.Youcanreportthepressuredistributionsasabove,butthe
systemwouldnottolerateanythingotherthanaverysmallangleofattackwithoutconsiderable
difficultyinformingasolution,sorunwiththeflowcomingontothewingatzeroangleofattack.
Yourfinalreportshouldbenomorethan10pages,submittedasgroupsof4.Pleaseaddacover
sheettothereportsothatIknowexactlywhoeachofyouare!

DavidGillespie
16/05/2014

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