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Introduction
In this lab we will investigate the performance of NACA 4412 wing section. NACA 4412 airfoil
was widely used in early days of aviation and has been studied extensively experimentally in
NACA reports ( e.g. 460, 563, 646, 824) .
The airfoil was used as recently as 1996 on BAe ATP airliner.
Fig 1. BAe ATP airliner. Wing root: NACA 23018; tip: NACA 4412
Most of the experiments were done at a lower speed and lower Reynolds number. Our key
comparison data is from the NACA TR563 report conducted at NACA variable density
windtunnel. The windtunnel data approximately corresponds to the following setup:
• Reynolds ~3m
• Pressure (tank) ~20.8 atm
• Density (tank) ~26 kg/m3
• Uinf ~21 m/s
• Typical airfoil chord ~ 12.7cm
• Mach ~0.06
We will use the panel method XFOIL code developed at MIT by Mark Drela
(http://web.mit.edu/drela/Public/web/xfoil/) and compare our results with the experimental
data for Cp and Cl polar.
Note:
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E. Shapiro, Cranfield University, SoE/FMaCS
Inviscid Simulations
Effect of the number of panels for fixed angle of attack. Say 4 degrees
nominal (2.9 corrected)
• Set the angle of attack to 2.9 degrees in the “oper” menu. Note: default number of
panels - 160
• Note Cl, Cd (0.8592,-0.00111)
• Store the cp to a file “cpwr <enter>”
• Return to main menu
• Go to the panelling menu: “ppar <enter>”
• Change the number of panels to 200, and compute the case. Note Cl, Cd (0.8595,
-0.00105)
• Store Cp and repeat the computations for the number of panels 250 and 300.
• Is there convergence with respect to number of panels in terms of Cp distribution and
lift?
• How does the Cp distribution compare with the experiment?
• Note experimental Cl at this angle of attack: ~0.677
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E. Shapiro, Cranfield University, SoE/FMaCS
Viscous Simulations
Compute viscous Cp at 2.9 degrees
• Leave the number of panels at 200
• Change the number of iterations in the “oper” menu to 500: “iter 500”
• In “oper” menu specify Mach number: “m 0.06”
• In “oper” menu specify Reynolds number: “visc r” (3,000,000)
• Compute the case: “a 2.9”
• Note the value of Cl (0.8039,0.005), is there an improvement in Cl prediction?
• Store the Cp distribution to a file: “cpwr”
• Set the trip for the boundary layer at 0.1. on both sides: “vpar <enter>”; “xtr”
• Compute the case, compare Cp with experimental data, inviscid case and case
without trip. (Cl=0.7806) Is there an improvement in Cl?
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