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Wind Tunnel Test of Symmetrical Airfoil.

Instrumentation
The major elements of the open-loop subsonic wind tunnel facility are indicated in Fig 1. The tunnel operates as open circuit, meaning air is drawn from the laboratory and also exhausted to the laboratory.

Procedure 1. We were introduced to the components of the wind tunnel. 2. For the safety reason, we were asked to wear ear protector to avoid the noise coming from the wind tunnel machine. 3. First, we set the angle of attack at the test section by adjusting the angle of the airfoil to the required angle such as -5, 0 and +5 degrees. 4. We were asked to operate the machine by ourself to feel the experience handling the wind tunnel with the supervision of the lab demonstrater. 5. At the computer, we RESET all data. 6. We increased the speed of the air stream up to 30 m/s. 7. We take the data from the computer after 1 minute (to make sure the reading is stable). 8. We repeat the same steps for 40 and 50 m/s.

THEORY
Lift is the force on a body acting normal to the direction of the freestream. Similar to drag, there are pressure and friction components of lift. Air foils are designed to have a minimum drag force but a maximum lift force. They are used as wings on airplanes and in various turbines. The shape of an air foil reduces pressure drag by having a small projected area into the flow and by having a long, slowing tapering length with the flow which eliminates flow separation. This shape does make the friction drag on an air foil significant. Because air foils are not symmetrical, the drag and lift on the foil will change as the direction of the flow stream changes. Figure 1 shows how the chord length, width, thickness and angle of attack are defined for air foils.

Figure 2 Air foil dimensions The pressure distribution method can be used to determine the pressure drag and lift on the air foil. It will not give us the friction drag. The geometry of the air foil pressure distribution is slightly different than for the cylinder, as seen in figure 2.

Figure 3 Air foil pressure distribution geometry Consider the forces on an infinitesimal element of an air foil surface,

ds. The pressure normal to the surface at this location is Psurf. The angle between the normal to the surface and the normal to the direction of the free stream is . Notice that the direction of Psurf is in toward the object. The lift force per unit width acting on this air foil due to the pressure, is found by integrating over the surface.

The negative sign is used because positive lift is upward. The pressure drag acting on this air foil, per unit width, is given by

The lift and drag forces FL and FD for non-zero angles of attack are given by the following equations.

Lift Coefficient

The lift coefficient is defined as:

Drag Coefficient

The drag coefficient, obtained from dimensionless analysis, is defined as:

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