ANALYSIS OF WING DESIGN AND EFFECT OF ANGLE OF

ATTACK DURING THE TAKE-OFF OF NORMAL AIR

PASSENGER FLIGHTS
Submitted in partial fulfillment of the
Requirements for the award of

Degree of Bachelor of Technology in Mechanical Engineering

Submitted By
Name: SIDDHANT SRIVASTAVA
University Roll No. 139109300

SUBMITTED TO: Prof. R A Dubey, Dr. Ashok Kumar sharma

Department of Mechanical Engineering

MANIPAL UNIVERSITY
Jaipur (Rajasthan).

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
I would like to thank Prof. R.A. Dubey and Dr. Ashok K. Sharma for giving me this
opportunity to work on this topic.
I would also like to thank Dr. Anand Pandey and Manipal university Jaipur for giving me
the opportunity to take up this work as my college curriculum.

DECLARATION

I hereby declare that the Industrial Training Report entitled " ANALYSIS OF WING DESIGN
AND EFFECT OF ANGLE OF ATTACK DURING THE TAKE-OFF OF NORMAL AIR
PASSENGER FLIGHTS" is an authentic record of my own work as requirements of
Industrial Training during the period from _______ to_______ for the award of degree of
B.Tech. (Mechanical Engineering), MANIPAL UNIVERSITY, Jaipur, Rajasthan, under the
guidance of (Name of Project Guide).

(Signature of student)
(SIDDHANT SRIVASTAVA)
(139109300)
Date: ____________________

Certified that the above statement made by the student is correct to the best of our knowledge
and belief.

Head of Department
(Signature and Seal)
3

List of content
1) Introduction
2) Aerodynamics:
3) Basic principle, Computational Fluid Dynamics:
4) Finite volume analysis
5) Conservation laws
6) Turbulent flow
7) Reynolds number
8) Airfoil
9) Airfoil terminology
10)

Lift

11)

NACA 4-digit airfoil

12)

Analytical setup

13)

Objective

14)

Assumptions

15)

Procedure

16)

Mesh

17)

Observations

18)

Conclusion

List of figures:
Fig.1:forces acting on an airfoil
Fig.2:types of air foils
Fig.3:Airfoil nomenclature
Fig.4:Different definitions of airfoil thickness
Fig.5:An airfoil designed for winglets(PSU 90-125WL)
Fig.6: design of airfoil
Fig.7: Boundary conditions
Fig.8:Mesh applied
Fig.9: mesh sizing
Fig.10: mesh statistics
fig.11, 13, 16, 20, 24, 28: pressure contours
fig12, 15, 19, 23, 27, 31: velocity contour in Y direction
Fig.14, 17, 21, 25, 29: velocity vector diagram
Fig.18: initiation of stalling
Fig.22: development of stalling
Fig.26, 30: stalling effect
Fig.32: ideal dependence of coefficient of lift with angle of attack

Introduction
This project will deal with the basic concepts of aerodynamics, computational fluid dynamics
and design engineering. During the following pages I will be analyzing the effect of attack
angle on the take-off of a regular flight.

Aerodynamics:
Aerodynamics is a branch of fluid dynamics concerned with studying the motion of air,
particularly when it interacts with a solid object, such as an airplane wing. Aerodynamics is a
sub-field of fluid dynamics and gas dynamics, and many aspects of aerodynamics theory are
common to these fields. The term aerodynamicsis often used synonymously with gas dynamics,
with the difference being that "gas dynamics" applies to the study of the motion of all gases, not
limited to air. Formal aerodynamics study in the modern sense began in the eighteenth century,
although observations of fundamental concepts such as aerodynamic drag have been recorded
much earlier.

The use of aerodynamics through mathematical analysis, empirical approximations, wind

tunnel experimentation, and computer simulations has formed the scientific basis for ongoing
developments in heavier-than-air flight and a number of other technologies. Recent work in
6

aerodynamics has focused on issues related to compressible flow, turbulence, and boundary
layers and has become increasingly computational in nature.

Understanding the motion of air around an object (often called a flow field) enables the
calculation of forces and moments acting on the object. In many aerodynamics problems, the
forces of interest are the fundamental forces of flight: lift, drag, thrust, and weight. Of these, lift
and drag are aerodynamic forces, i.e. forces due to air flow over a solid body. Calculation of
these quantities is often founded upon the assumption that the flow field behaves as a
continuum.

Continuum flow

fields

are

characterized by properties

such as flow

velocity,pressure, density, and temperature, which may be functions of spatial position and
time. These properties may be directly or indirectly measured in aerodynamics experiments or
calculated from equations for the conservation of mass, momentum, and energy in air flows.
Density, flow velocity, and an additional property, viscosity, are used to classify flow fields.

Fig.1:forces acting on an airfoil

Basic principle, Computational Fluid Dynamics:

Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) is a branch of fluid mechanics that uses numerical
analysis and algorithms to solve and analyze problems that involve fluid flows. Computers are
used to perform the calculations required to simulate the interaction of liquids and gases with
surfaces defined by boundary conditions

It uses applied mathematics, physics and computational software to visualize how

a gas or liquid flows -- as well as how the gas or liquid affects objects as it flows past.
Computational fluid dynamics is based on the Navier-Stokes equations. These equations
describe how the velocity, pressure, temperature, and density of a moving fluid are related.
Computational fluid dynamics has been around since the early 20th century and many people
are familiar with it as a tool for analyzing air flow around cars and aircraft. As the cooling
infrastructure of server rooms has increased in complexity, CFD has also become a useful tool
in the data center for analyzing thermal properties and modeling air flow. CFD software
requires information about the size, content and layout of the data center. It uses this
information to create a 3D mathematical model on a grid that can be rotated and viewed from
different angles. CFD modeling can help an administrator identify hot spots and learn where
cold air is being wasted or air is mixing.
Simply by changing variables, the administrator can visualize how cold air will flow through
the data center under a number of different circumstances. This knowledge can help the
administrator optimize the efficiency of an existing cooling infrastructure and predict the
effectiveness of a particular layout of IT equipment. For example, if an administrator wanted to
take one rack of hard drive storage and split the hard drives over two racks, a CFD program
could simulate the change and help the administrator understand what adjustments would be
need to be made to deal with the additional heat load before any time or money has been spent.

Finite volume analysis

The finite volume method (FVM) is a discretization technique for partial differential equations,
especially those that arise from physical conservation laws. FVM uses a volume integral
formulation of the problem with a finite partitioning set of volumes to discretize the equations.
FVM is in common use for discretizing computational fluid dynamics equations.
We consider vertex-centered finite volume methods for solving diffusion type elliptic equation
(1)

(Ku) = f in ,

with suitable Dirichlet or Neumann boundary conditions. Here Rd is a polyhedral domain

(d 2), the diffusion coefficient K(x) is a d d symmetric matrix function that is uniformly
positive definite on with components in L (), and f L2 (). We have discussed finite
8

element methods based on the discretization of the weak formulation and finite difference
methods based on the classic formulation. We shall now present finite volume methods based
on the following balance equation
b (Ku) n ds = b f.dx, b ,

(2)

where n denotes the unit outwards normal vector of b. Finite volume methods are
discretizations of the balance equation (2). The discretization consists of three approximations:
(1) approximate the function u by uh in a N-dimensional space V;
(2) approximate arbitrary domain b by a finite subset B = {bi , i = 1 : M};
(3) approximate boundary flux (Ku) n on bi by a discrete one (Khuh) n.
We then end with a method: to find uh V such that:
bi (Khuh)n dS = bi f dx, bi, i = 1:M.

(3)

We call any method in the form (3) finite volume methods (FVMs). Since finite volume
methods discretize the balance equation (2) directly, an obvious virtue of finite volume methods
is the conservation property comparing with finite element methods based on the weak
formulation. This property can be fundamental for the simulation of many physical models,
e.g., in oil recovery simulations and in computational fluid dynamics in general.
On the other hand, the function space and the control volume can be constructed based on
general unstructured triangulations for complex geometry domains. The boundary condition
can be easily built into the function space or the variational form. Thus FVM is more flexible
than standard finite difference methods which mainly defined on the structured grids of simple
domains.

Conservation laws
Aerodynamic problems are typically solved using fluid dynamics conservation laws as applied
to a fluid continuum. Three conservation principles are used:
1. Conservation of mass: In fluid dynamics, the mathematical formulation of this
principle is known as the mass continuity equation, which requires that mass is neither
created nor destroyed within a flow of interest.
9

2. Conservation of momentum: In fluid dynamics, the mathematical formulation of this

principle can be considered an application of Newton's Second Law. Momentum within
a flow of interest is only created or destroyed due to the work of external forces, which
may include both surface forces, such as viscous (frictional) forces, and body forces,
such as weight. The momentum conservation principle may be expressed as either a
single vector equation or a set of three scalar equations, derived from the components of
the three-dimensional flow velocity vector. In its most complete form, the momentum
conservation equations are known as the Navier-Stokes equations. The Navier-Stokes
equations have no known analytical solution and are solved in modern aerodynamics
using computational techniques. Because of the computational cost of solving these
complex equations, simplified expressions of momentum conservation may be
appropriate for specific applications. The Euler equations are a set of momentum
conservation equations which neglect viscous forces used widely by modern
aerodynamicists in cases where the effect of viscous forces is expected to be small.
Additionally, Bernoulli's equation is a solution to the momentum conservation equation
of an inviscid flow, neglecting gravity.
3. Conservation of energy: The energy conservation equation states that energy is neither
created nor destroyed within a flow, and that any addition or subtraction of energy is
due either to the fluid flow in and out of the region of interest, heat transfer, or work.

Turbulent flow
Flow descriptions such as Poiseuille's law are valid only for conditions of laminar flow. At
some critical velocity, the flow will become turbulent with the formation of eddies and chaotic
motion which do not contribute to the volume flowrate. This turbulence increases the resistance
dramatically so that large increases in pressure will be required to further increase the volume
flowrate. Experimental studies have characterized the critical velocity for a long straight tube in
the form

10

which depends upon the viscosity in poise, the density in gm/cm3 , the radius of the tube r
in cm. The script R is an experimental constant called the Reynold's number. The reported
Reynolds number for blood flow is about 2000. Modeling blood flow in the
human aorta according to this criterion leads to the expectation of some turbulence in the center
of the flow.

Reynolds number
The Reynolds number is an experimental number used in fluid flow to predict the flow
velocity at which turbulence will occur. It is described as the ratio of inertial forces to viscous
forces. For flow through a tube it is defined by the relationship: The parameters are viscosity ,
density and radius r.

Airfoil
An airfoil (in American English) or aerofoil (in British English) is the shape of a wing, blade
(of a propeller, rotor, or turbine), or sail (as seen in cross-section).
An airfoil-shaped body moved through a fluid produces an aerodynamic force. The component
of this force perpendicular to the direction of motion is called lift. The component parallel to
the direction of motion is called drag. Subsonic flight airfoils have a characteristic shape with a
rounded leading edge, followed by a sharp trailing edge, often with a symmetric curvature of
upper and lower surfaces. Foils of similar function designed with water as the working fluid are
called hydrofoils.
The lift on an airfoil is primarily the result of its angle of attack and shape. When oriented at a
suitable angle, the airfoil deflects the oncoming air (for fixed-wing aircraft, a downward force),
resulting in a force on the airfoil in the direction opposite to the deflection. This force is known
as aerodynamic force and can be resolved into two components: lift and drag. Most foil shapes
require a positive angle of attack to generate lift, but cambered airfoils can generate lift at zero
angle of attack. This "turning" of the air in the vicinity of the airfoil creates curved streamlines,
resulting in lower pressure on one side and higher pressure on the other. This pressure
difference is accompanied by a velocity difference, via Bernoulli's principle, so the resulting
flow field about the airfoil has a higher average velocity on the upper surface than on the lower
surface.
11

Fig.2:types of air foils

Airfoil terminology

Fig.3:Airfoil nomenclature

12

The suction surface (a.k.a. upper surface) is generally associated with higher velocity
and lower static pressure.

The pressure surface (a.k.a. lower surface) has a comparatively higher static pressure
than the suction surface. The pressure gradient between these two surfaces contributes
to the lift force generated for a given airfoil.

The geometry of the airfoil is described with a variety of terms :

The leading edge is the point at the front of the airfoil that has maximum curvature
(minimum radius).

The trailing edge is defined similarly as the point of minimum curvature at the rear of
the airfoil.

The chord line is the straight line connecting leading and trailing edges. The chord
length, or simply chord, , is the length of the chord line. That is the reference
dimension of the airfoil section.

Fig.4:Different definitions of airfoil thickness

13

Fig.5:An airfoil designed for winglets(PSU 90-125WL)

The shape of the airfoil is defined using the following geometrical parameters:

The mean camber line or mean line is the locus of points midway between the upper
and lower surfaces. Its shape depends on the thickness distribution along the chord;

The thickness of an airfoil varies along the chord. It may be measured in either of two
ways:

Thickness measured perpendicular to the camber line. This is sometimes

described as the "American convention";

Thickness measured perpendicular to the chord line. This is sometimes

described as the "British convention".

Some important parameters to describe an airfoil's shape are its camber and its thickness. For
example, an airfoil of the NACA 4-digit series such as the NACA 2415 (to be read as 2 - 4 15) describes an airfoil with a camber of 0.02 chord located at 0.40 chord, with 0.15 chord of
maximum thickness.
Finally, important concepts used to describe the airfoil's behavior when moving through a fluid
are:

The aerodynamic center, which is the chord-wise length about which the pitching
moment is independent of the lift coefficient and the angle of attack.

The center of pressure, which is the chord-wise location about which the pitching
moment is zero.

Lift
Lift is the component of this force that is perpendicular to theoncoming flow direction. It
contrasts with the drag force, which is the component of the surface force parallel to the flow
direction. If the fluid is air, the force is called an aerodynamic force.
Lift is most commonly associated with the wing of a fixed-wing aircraft, although lift is also
generated

by propellers, kites,

rotors, rudders, sails and keels on sailboats, hydrofoils, wings on auto

helicopter
racing cars, wind

turbines, and other streamlined objects. Lift is also exploited in the animal world, and even in
14

the plant world by the seeds of certain trees. While the common meaning of the word "lift"
assumes that lift opposes weight, lift in the technical sense used in this article can be in any
direction with respect to gravity, since it is defined with respect to the direction of flow rather
than to the direction of gravity. When an aircraft is flying straight and level (cruise) most of the
lift opposes gravity. However, when an aircraft is climbing, descending, or banking in a turn the
lift is tilted with respect to the vertical. Lift may also be entirely downwards in some aerobatic
manoeuvres, or on the wing on a racing car. In this last case, the term downforce is often used.
Lift may also be largely horizontal, for instance on a sail on a sailboat.

NACA 4-digit airfoil

The NACA airfoils are airfoil shapes for aircraft wings developed by the National Advisory
Committee for Aeronautics(NACA). The shape of the NACA airfoils is described using a series
of digits following the word "NACA". The parameters in the numerical code can be entered
into equations to precisely generate the cross-section of the airfoil and calculate its properties.
The NACA airfoil section is created from a camber line and a thickness distribution plotted
perpendicular to the camber line.
The equation for the camber line is split into sections either side of the point of maximum
camber position (P). In order to calculate the position of the final airfoil envelope later the
gradient of the camber line is also required. The equations are:

The thickness distribution is given by the equation:

15

The constants a0 to a4 are for a 20% thick airfoil. The expression T/0.2 adjusts the
constants to the required thickness.

At the trailing edge (x=1) there is a finite thickness of 0.0021 chord width for a 20%
airfoil. If a closed trailing edge is required the value of a4 can be adjusted.

The value of yt is a half thickness and needs to be applied both sides of the camber line.

Using the equations above, for a given value of x it is possible to calculate the camber line
position Yc, the gradient of the camber line and the thickness. The position of the upper and
lower surface can then be calculated perpendicular to the camber line.

The most obvious way to to plot the airfoil is to iterate through equally spaced values of x
calclating the upper and lower surface coordinates. While this works, the points are more
widely spaced around the leading edge where the curvature is greatest and flat sections can be
seen on the plots. To group the points at the ends of the airfoil sections a cosine spacing is used
with uniform increments of

The equations can be converted and be used in the form:

(0.8/0.2)*(((0.2969*((x/8)0.5))-(0.126*(x/8))-(0.3537*((x/8)2))+(0.2843*((x/8)3))(0.1015*((x/8)4))))

[the upper half]

(0.4/0.2)*(((0.2969*((x/8)0.5))-(0.126*(x/8))-(0.3537*((x/8)2))+(0.2843*((x/8)3))(0.1015*((x/8)4))))

[lower side]

Software used

MATLAB
16

SolidWorks

Ansys Fluent

Analytical setup
NACA 4-Digit equation used
The equations can be converted and be used in the form:
=>(0.8/0.2)*(((0.2969*((x/8)0.5))-(0.126*(x/8))-(0.3537*((x/8)2))+(0.2843*((x/8)3))(0.1015*((x/8)4))))

[the upper half]

=>(0.4/0.2)*(((0.2969*((x/8)0.5))-(0.126*(x/8))-(0.3537*((x/8)2))+(0.2843*((x/8)3))(0.1015*((x/8)4))))

[lower side]

Fig.6: design of airfoil

Boundary conditions
According to the real conditions for take off, the maximum velocity needed by the flight is
475km/hr(131m/s)
The air behind the plane is 1atm.

17

Fig.7: Boundary conditions

Material
The material of the wing is selected as an alloy of steel and aluminum. Aluminum (blended
with small quantities of other metals) is used on most types of aircraft because it is
lightweight and strong. Aluminum alloys dont corrode as readily as steel. But because they
lose their strength at high temperatures, they cannot be used for skin surfaces that become
very hot on airplanes that fly faster than twice the speed of sound.

Objective
To analyze the effect of the attack angle on the lift produced on the wing of a regular jetliner
(boeing737).

Assumptions

Pressure based analysis

The flow is supposed to steady state and laminar

It assumes that the surface is completely smooth

No energy transfer takes place

Temperature is 15c
18

Second order solution

Procedure
1) Started MATLAB
2) Substituted values
3) Reduced the equation for NACA 4-digit airfoil
4) Opened Solid works
5) Selected front plane and selected the Spline with equations.
6) Substituted the equations from MATLAB in Solid Works.
7) Saved the file in .IGES format
8) Opened ANSYS Fluent, imported the geometry, applied mesh, boundary conditions,
solved the result.
9) Changed the attack angle and repeated the process.

Mesh

Fig.8:Mesh applied

19

Fig.9: mesh sizing

Fig.10: mesh statistics

Observations
1) 0 degree

20

fig.11: pressure contour

fig12: velocity contour in Y direction

21

2) 5

Fig.13:

degree

pressure

contour

22

Fig.14:

velocity

vectors

23

Fig.15: velocity in Y direction

3) 10 degree

24

Fig.16:

pressure

contours

25

Fig.17:

velocity

vectors

26

Fig.18:

initiation

of

stalling

27

Fig.19: velocity contour in Y direction

4) 15 degree

28

Fig.20:

pressure

contours

29

Fig.21:

velocity

vectors

30

Fig.22:

development

of

stalling

31

Fig.23: velocity in Y direction

5) 20 degree

32

Fig.24:

pressure

contour

33

Fig.25:

velocity

vector

diagram

34

Fig.26:

stalling

effect

35

Fig.27: velocity in Y direction

6) 25 degree

36

Fig.28:

pressure

contour

37

Fig.29:

velocity

vector

diagram

38

Fig,30:

stalling

effect

39

Fig.31: velocity in Y direction

Area of wing (boing 737) = 105.4m2

Density of air = 1.225kg/m3
Lift force = 0.5CLV2A

Sr.

Attack

no. angle

Initial

Pressure

Maximum

Lift

Lift force

velocity

difference

Velocity(In

coefficient

(N)

(Pa)

Y Direction) (C )
L

131m/s

13.2103Pa

58.4m/s

0.045307

5105

131m/s

11.44103Pa

137.2m/s

0.26017

2.9106

10

131m/s

65.2103Pa

254.6m/s

0.73099

8106

15

131m/s

52.2103Pa

238.4m/s

1.5688

1.7107

20

131m/s

39.6103Pa

165.7m/s

2.0455

2.26107

25

131m/s

44.3103Pa

211.8m/s

1.445

1.5107
40

Table_1:

dependence

lift

coeff.

And

force

with

angle

Fig.32: ideal dependence of coefficient of lift with angle of attack

Conclusion

By the results we can see that the angle of attack between 15-20 degrees results in the
highest amount of lift force.

After 20 degrees the force starts decreasing due to multiple reasons including increased
impact pressure, increased drag force and initiation of stall.

No matter how smooth the surface of an airfoil seems, any real surface is rough on the
scale of air molecules. Air molecules flying into the surface bounce off the rough
surface in random directions not related to their incoming directions. The result is that
41

when the air is viewed as if it were a continuous material, it is seen to be unable to slide
along the surface, and the air's tangential velocity at the surface goes to practically zero,
something known as the no-slip condition. Because the air at the surface has near-zero
velocity, and air away from the surface is moving, there is a thin boundary layer in
which the air close to the surface is subjected to a shearing motion. The
air's viscosity resists the shearing, giving rise to a shear stress at the airfoil's surface
called skin-friction drag. Over most of the surface of most airfoils, the boundary layer is

naturally turbulent, which increases skin-friction drag.

Under usual flight conditions, the boundary layer remains attached to both the upper
and lower surfaces all the way to the trailing edge, and its effect on the rest of the flow
is modest. Compared to the predictions of inviscid-flow theory, in which there is no
boundary layer, the attached boundary layer reduces the lift by a modest amount and
modifies the pressure distribution somewhat, which results in a viscosity-related
pressure drag over and above the skin-friction drag. The total of the skin-friction drag

and the viscosity-related pressure drag is usually called the profile drag.
The maximum lift an airfoil can produce at a given airspeed is limited by boundarylayer separation. As the angle of attack is increased, a point is reached where the
boundary layer can no longer remain attached to the upper surface. When the boundary
layer separates, it leaves a region of recirculating flow above the upper surface, as
illustrated in the flow-visualization photo at right. This is known as the stall, or stalling.
At angles of attack above the stall, lift is significantly reduced, though it is not zero. The
maximum lift that can be achieved before stall, in terms of the lift coefficient, is
generally less than 2.0 for single-element airfoils and can be more than 3.0 for airfoils
with high-lift slotted flaps deployed.

References

Hydraulics and fluid mechanism; PN Modi

CAD/CAM theory and practice; Ibrahim Zeid, R. sivasubramanium

Fluid Mechanics; cengal, cimbala

42

Finite Element Analysis; moaveni

Fundamentals of aerodynamics; anderson

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aerodynamics

http://www.azom.com/article.aspx?ArticleID=12117

http://www.mathematik.uni-dortmund.de/~kuzmin/cfdintro/lecture1.pdf

http://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/computational-fluid-dynamics-CFD

http://www.mathematik.uni-dortmund.de/~kuzmin/cfdintro/lecture5.pdf

https://www.comsol.co.in/multiphysics/navier-stokes-equations

http://web.iitd.ac.in/~prabal/FVM_lecturenotes-5.pdf

http://www.math.uci.edu/~chenlong/226/FVM.pdf

http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/pturb.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Airfoil

http://mail.tku.edu.tw/095980/airfoil%20design.pdf

http://airfoiltools.com/airfoil/naca4digit

http://howthingsfly.si.edu/structures-materials/materials

http://www.ajdesigner.com/phpwinglift/wing_lift_equation_coefficient.php

https://www.grc.nasa.gov/www/k-12/WindTunnel/Activities/lift_formula.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lift_(force)

https://www.grc.nasa.gov/www/k-12/airplane/liftco.html

43