MIDDLE EAST TECHNICAL UNIVERSITY

DEPARTMENT OF AEROSPACE ENGINEERING

AE 547 EXPERIMENTAL AERODYNAMICS

LABORATORY

AIRFOIL WITH TAPPINGS

GROUP 6
GROUP MEMBERS
GÖRKEM DEMİR
MUSTAFA BENT
NERGİS GÜNDÜZ
UMUT BAYKARA
UĞUR KARPUZ
Purpose:

The purpose of this experiment is to observe pressure distribution around a symmetric airfoil
at various angle of attack . The pressure distribution over a symmetric airfoil NACA
0020 with tapping fits onto the AF 10 and shows characteristics of lift. Although, it is
small scaled wing model used in the experiment it’s possible to scale up to make
comparison between smaller and larger one.

Procedure:

Set up:

The airfoil is contained in a clear sided duct in ‘closed ends’ arrangement thus airflow is only
across the curved surfaces of the airfoil. This condition comes over the wing tip vortices or
drag caused by wing tips. By the way two dimensional flow is observed around airfoil. One of
the best advantage of the arrangement is ‘infinite span’. Airfoil holds by duct in a position
which is vertical to the ground.
Pressure tappings are placed along the top and bottom surfaces of the airfoil. Each of them
numbered according to their placement. For instance upper sided tapping has number of
2,4,6,8,10,12 while lower sided one has number of 1,3,5,7,9,11. These tappings are connected
to a set of numbered small pipe connectors on a plate which are located next to the airfoil. A
set of larger bore pipes connects the numbered pipe connectors to the AF10 manometer. At
the inlet part of the duct, just above the airfoil there is an extra pressure tapping which is
placed to measure static pressure upstream of the airfoil. Moreover, it is placed for use with
the tapping on the AF10 to calculate air velocity upstream of the airfoil.
Incidence angle of the airfoil can be changed according to the numbered scale in front of the
airfoil.

Here are the positions of tappings over airfoil from the leading edge.

These are general characteristics of airfoil NACA0020.

Theory:

It is well known that an object in a flow produces lift when pressure at the lower side is higher
than the pressure at upper side. Lift is also related with incidence angle for example, there is
no lift when incidence angle is zero for symmetric airfoil in an airflow. Lift is increased with
increasing positive angle of incidence.
However there is a certain point where the airflow over the upper surface starts to separate
from the wing. Change in pressure distribution results in change in center of lift position. The
aerodynamic lift center of the airfoil moves through backward. As a result of stall lift is
reduced and drag is increased. The performance of an airfoil can be observed from lift curves.
In this experiment we want to measure the performance of the wing by using this type of
airfoil. We can measure performance of the wing by measuring the pressures on the two
surfaces of the airfoil, relative to local air pressure.

The chord ratio is simply the ratio between the position of tapping and chord of the airfoil.
Both measurements units are same thus t/c ratio is dimensionless.
Experiment;

*AF10 connected to the AF18

*Leave one manometer tube and the common manometer connection open to the atmosphere
*Arrange the locking screw and set the airfoil to zero angle
*Connect the static pressure at the top of the wind tunnel to the last manometer tube then
measure the pressure
*Move this manometer connection down to the inlet static pressure tapping and measure the
pressure
*Record the all manometer readings for the tapping for the airfoil.
*Increase angle of attack positively 5 degree in each step up to 25.
*Repeat these steps for each 5 degree
*Convert all these pressure readings to Pa (Pascal)
CALCULATIONS;

To understand lift characteristics the pressure distribution around an airfoil should be used. To
show the pressure distribution in non dimensional way cp can be calculated from the equation
given above. However, we need to calculate free stream velocity to find pressure coefficient.
Peff can be calculated to find correct free stream velocity around the airfoil. The duct inlet
tapping is 135mm upstream of the exit of the duct. The center of the airfoil is 85mm
downstream from these tapping.

Pa =
Po =
Pairbox =

p0= pressure at the duct inlet and pa=atmospheric pressure

The free stream velocity at each tapping point will be calculated by the formula:

Pn is pressure at the tapping.

Lower surface tapping: 1,3,5,7,9,11 and Upper side tapping:2,4,6,8,10,12

AOA
0 5 10 15 20 25
Tapping

11
 AOA
0 5 10 15 20 25
Tapping

10

12

1) Convert all these pressure readings to Pa (Pascal)

2) Plot the pressure coefficient and the thickness to chord ratio for each angle of attack.
3) Draw the best fit lines for the pressures on the upper and lower surfaces.
4) The area between your curves is the coefficient of lift.
5) Use the trapezium rule or other methods to find this area for each angle.
6) Plot cL angle of attack graph to find stall angle
7) Maximum lift coefficient should be found from your curve
8) The gradient of the lift curve should be found from your curve