Introduction

An airfoil or aerofoil is the shape of a wing or blade (of a propeller, rotor or turbine) or sail.

Airfoil nomenclature

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 asymmetric camber. Foils of similar function designed with water as the working fluid are called hydrofoils.

Conventional and Laminar Airfoils

Conventional and Laminar flow airfoils are in common use in airplane design. Laminar flow airfoils were originally developed for the purpose of making an airplane fly faster. The laminar flow wing is usually thinner than the conventional airfoil, the leading edge is more pointed and its upper and lower surfaces are nearly symmetrical. The major and most important difference between the two types of airfoil is that the thickest part of a laminar wing (maximum camber) occurs at 50% chord while in the conventional design the thickest part is at 25% chord as show in fig.

The effect achieved by this type of design of a wing is to maintain the laminar flow of air throughout a greater percentage of the chord of the wing and to control the transition point. Drag is therefore considerably reduced since the laminar airfoil takes less energy to slide through the air. The pressure distribution on the laminar flow wing is much more even since the camber of the wing from the leading edge to the point of maximum camber is more gradual than on the conventional airfoil. This is illustrated in the figure. However, at the point of stall, the transition point moves more rapidly forward.

Different types of conventional airfoils are shown in figure

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, 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 which results 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 flowfield about the airfoil has a higher average velocity on the upper surface than on the lower surface. The lift force can be related directly to the average top/bottom velocity difference without computing the pressure by using the concept of circulation and the Kutta-Joukowski theorem. A fixed-wing aircraft's wings, horizontal, and vertical stabilizers are built with airfoil-shaped cross sections, as are helicopter rotor blades. Airfoils are also found in propellers, fans, compressors and turbines. Sails are also airfoils, and the underwater surfaces of sailboats, such as the centerboard and keel, are similar in cross-section and operate on the same principles as airfoils. Swimming and flying creatures and even many plants and sessile organisms employ airfoils/hydrofoils: common examples being bird wings, the bodies of fish,

and the shape of sand dollars. An airfoil-shaped wing can create downforce on an automobile or other motor vehicle, improving traction.

Streamlines around a NACA 0012 airfoil at moderate angle of attack

Any object with an angle of attack in a moving fluid, such as a flat plate, a building, or the deck of a bridge, will generate an aerodynamic force (called lift) perpendicular to the flow. Airfoils are more efficient lifting shapes, able to generate more lift (up to a point), and to generate lift with less drag. A lift and drag curve obtained in wind tunnel testing is shown on below.

The curve represents an airfoil with a positive camber so some lift is produced at zero angle of attack. With increased angle of attack, lift increases in a roughly linear relation, called the slope of the lift curve. At about 18 degrees this airfoil stalls, and lift falls off quickly beyond that. The drop in lift can be explained by the action of the upper-surface boundary layer, which separates and greatly thickens over the upper surface at and past the stall angle. The thickened boundary layer's displacement thickness changes the airfoil's effective shape, in particular it reduces its effective camber, which modifies the overall flow field so as to reduce the circulation and the lift. The thicker boundary layer also causes a large increase in pressure drag, so that the overall drag increases sharply near and past the stall point.

NACA 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.

Profile geometry 1: Zero lift line; 2: Leading edge; 3: Nose circle; 4: Camber; 5: Max. thickness; 6: Upper surface; 7: Trailing edge; 8: Camber mean-line; 9: Lower surface

Profile lines 1: Chord, 2: Camber, 3: Length, 4: Midline

Thin Airfoil Theory

Thin Airfoil Theory is a simple theory of airfoils that relates angle of attack to lift for incompressible, inviscid flows. It was devised by German mathematician Max Munk and further refined by British aerodynamicist Hermann Glauert and others in the 1920s. The theory idealizes the flow around an airfoil as two-dimensional flow around a thin airfoil. It can be imagined as addressing an airfoil of zero thickness and infinite wingspan. Thin airfoil theory was particularly notable in its day because it provided a sound theoretical basis for the following important properties of airfoils in two-dimensional flow: (1) on a symmetric airfoil, the center of pressure lies exactly one quarter of the chord behind the leading edge. (2) on a cambered airfoil, the aerodynamic center lies exactly one quarter of the chord behind the leading edge. (3) the slope of the lift coefficient versus angle of attack line is units per radian.

As a consequence of (3), the section lift coefficient of a symmetric airfoil of infinite wingspan is:

where

is the section lift coefficient,

is the angle of attack in radians, measured relative to the chord line. (The above expression is also applicable to a cambered airfoil where measured relative to the zero-lift line instead of the chord line.) is the angle of attack

Also as a consequence of (3), the section lift coefficient of a cambered airfoil of infinite wingspan is:

where

is the section lift coefficient when the angle of attack is zero.

Thin airfoil theory does not account for the stall of the airfoil, which usually occurs at an angle of attack between 10 and 15 for typical airfoils.

Airfoil Design
Airfoil design is a major facet of aerodynamics. Various airfoils serve different flight regimes. Asymmetric airfoils can generate lift at zero angle of attack, while a symmetric airfoil may better suit frequent inverted flight as in an aerobatic aeroplane. In the region of the ailerons and near a wingtip a symmetric airfoil can be used to increase the range of angles of attack to avoid spin-stall. Thus a large range of angles can be used without boundary layer separation. Subsonic airfoils have a round leading edge, which is naturally insensitive to the angle of attack. The cross section is not strictly circular, however: the radius of curvature is increased before the wing achieves maximum thickness to minimize the chance of boundary layer separation. This elongates the wing and moves the point of maximum thickness back from the leading edge. Supersonic airfoils are much more angular in shape and can have a very sharp leading edge, which is very sensitive to angle of attack. A supercritical airfoil has its maximum thickness close to the leading edge to have a lot of length to slowly shock the supersonic flow back to subsonic speeds. Generally such transonic airfoils and also the supersonic airfoils have a low camber to reduce drag divergence. Modern aircraft wings may have different airfoil sections along the wing span, each one optimized for the conditions in each section of the wing. Movable high-lift devices, flaps and sometimes slats, are fitted to airfoils on almost every aircraft. A trailing edge flap acts similar to an aileron, with the difference that it can be retracted partially into the wing if not used. A laminar flow wing has a maximum thickness in the middle camber line. Analysing the Navier-Stokes equations in the linear regime shows that a negative pressure gradient along the flow has the same effect as reducing the speed. So with the maximum camber in the middle, maintaining a laminar flow over a larger percentage of the wing at a higher cruising

speed is possible. However, with rain or insects on the wing, or for jetliner speeds, this does not work. Since such a wing stalls more easily, this airfoil is not used on wingtips (spin-stall again). Schemes have been devised to define airfoils an example is the NACA system. Various airfoil generation systems are also used. An example of a general purpose airfoil that finds wide application, and predates the NACA system, is the Clark-Y. Today, airfoils can be designed for specific functions using inverse design programs such as PROFOIL, XFOIL and AeroFoil. XFOIL is an online program created by Mark Drela that will design and analyze subsonic isolated airfoils.

Airfoil Design Methods

The process of airfoil design proceeds from a knowledge of the boundary layer properties and the relation between geometry and pressure distribution. The goal of an airfoil design varies. Some airfoils are designed to produce low drag (and may not be required to generate lift at all.) Some sections may need to produce low drag while producing a given amount of lift. In some cases, the drag doesn't really matter -- it is maximum lift that is important. The section may be required to achieve this performance with a constraint on thickness, or pitching moment, or off-design performance, or other unusual constraints. One approach to airfoil design is to use an airfoil that was already designed by someone who knew what he or she was doing. This "design by authority" works well when the goals of a particular design problem happen to coincide with the goals of the original airfoil design. This is rarely the case, although sometimes existing airfoils are good enough. In these cases, airfoils may be chosen from catalogs such as Abbott and von Doenhoff's Theory of Wing Sections, Althaus' and Wortmann's Stuttgarter Profilkatalog, Althaus' Low Reynolds Number Airfoil catalog, or Selig's "Airfoils at Low Speeds". The advantage to this approach is that there is test data available. No surprises, such as a unexpected early stall, are likely. On the other hand, available tools are now sufficiently refined that one can be reasonably sure that the predicted performance can be achieved. The use of "designer airfoils" specifically tailored to the needs of a given project is now very common. This section of the notes deals with the process of custom airfoil design. Methods for airfoil design can be classified into two categories: direct and inverse design.

Direct Methods for Airfoil Design

The direct airfoil design methods involve the specification of a section geometry and the calculation of pressures and performance. One evaluates the given shape and then modifies the shape to improve the performance. The two main subproblems in this type of method are 1. the identification of the measure of performance 2. the approach to changing the shape so that the performance is improved The simplest form of direct airfoil design involves starting with an assumed airfoil shape (such as a NACA airfoil), determining the characteristic of this section that is most

problemsome, and fixing this problem. This process of fixing the most obvious problems with a given airfoil is repeated until there is no major problem with the section. The design of such airfoils, does not require a specific definition of a scalar objective function, but it does require some expertise to identify the potential problems and often considerable expertise to fix them. Let's look at a simple (but real life!) example.

Inverse Design
Another type of objective function is the target pressure distribution. It is sometimes possible to specify a desired Cp distribution and use the least squares difference between the actual and target Cp's as the objective. This is the basic idea behind a variety of methods for inverse design. As an example, thin airfoil theory can be used to solve for the shape of the camberline that produces a specified pressure difference on an airfoil in potential flow. The second part of the design problem starts when one has somehow defined an objective for the airfoil design. This stage of the design involves changing the airfoil shape to improve the performance. This may be done in several ways: 1. By hand, using knowledge of the effects of geometry changes on Cp and Cp changes on performance. 2. By numerical optimization, using shape functions to represent the airfoil geometry and letting the computer decide on the sequence of modifications needed to improve the design.

Wind Tunnel Testing of the Airfoil

Wind tunnel testing is a crucial step in the design of an aircraft. It can give quite accurate information on the performance of an aircraft or a section of an aircraft by taking data on a scale model. This can save enormous amounts of money by testing models instead of prototypes. It is also much safer to test in a wind tunnel than out in the open.

Theory of Wind Tunnels

All wind tunnels can be divided into one of two types: open circuit (also calledstraight through) or closed circuit (also called return flow). Open circuit wind tunnels pull the air from the environment into the tunnel and release the air back into the environment, whereas the closed circuit continually circulates the same air throughout the tunnel. Closed circuit wind tunnels are advantageous over open circuit wind tunnels for the following reasons: the quality of the flow can be easily controlled with screens and corner turning vanes; less energy is required to create an airflow of a given size and velocity; the wind tunnel runs more quietly. The disadvantages are the initial expense of building and need to change the air if it is significantly heated or polluted with smoke from smoke testing or engines.

This is the wind tunnel we will be using for testing of airfoils.

Procedures of Testing the Airfoil

Our goal is to find the coefficients of lift and drag, CL and CD, respectively. These coefficients are defined as follows: CL = 2L/(dvA) (1) CD = 2D/(dvA) (2) Where L is the lift force in N, D is the drag force also in N, d is the density of the air in kg/m3, v is the velocity of the air in m/s, and A is the horizontal area of the wing in m. The first step is to find the velocity of the airflow. Quite simply using a manometer to compare the pressure at two different places in the wind tunnel having two different crosssectional areas did this. The velocity could then be calculated using the equation: V = 4.3*(h) 0.5 (3) Where h is the difference in height between the two levels of the distilled water in the manometer measured in mm. h can be taken from the manufacturer The area of the wing can be calculated by multiplying chord length by the length of the section. The density of air is 1.20kg/m3 at room temperature. The final parameters required for calculating the two coefficients are the corresponding forces.