Flow over an airfoil
Flow over an Airfoil using SOLIDWORKS
Aim: - Model the flow over a NACA0017 airfoil For the angle of attacks 0,2,4,6,8,10 compare the lift and drag forces
You can use any Airfoil from the AirFoil Data Base. While copying the Airfoil data to a text file, make sure that you format it in a way that solidworks can read it. A sample file is attached in the link below,
References
skill-lync
Click Here to download the sample airfoil Data.
Airfoil is defined as the cross-section of a body that is placed in an airstream in order to generate useful aerodynamic force.
Important points
- Integrated force along the x-axis is Drag force.
- Integrated force along the y-axis is Lift force.
Angle of Attacks:
In aerodynamics, angle of attack specifies the angle between the chord line of the wing of a fixed-wing aircraft and the vector representing the relative motion between the aircraft and the atmosphere. Since a wing can have twist, a chord line of the whole wing may not be definable, so an alternate reference line is simply defined. Often, the chord line of the root of the wing is chosen as the reference line. Another choice is to use a horizontal line on the fuselage as the reference line (and also as the longitudinal axis). Some authors do not use an arbitrary chord line but use the zero lift axis where, by definition, zero angle of attack corresponds to zero coefficient of lift.
Procedure:
Initially get the required airfoil from the airfoil database and import the airfoil in the solidworks flow simulations. Then open a sketch, close the airfoil at the end and set the angle of attacks of air. Then extrude to some assumption length and save the file in the computer. Now open the wizard and set required conditions like external flow, time dependent, air medium, and velocity value. Open the computational domain and increase the domain size, so that we can get perfect results. Then set the global goals and surface goals and provide the local mesh grid. The fine size is set to 3. Now run the flow simulations, we get the drag force plot and contour plots in the solver tab. After solving all iterations, create a velocity cut plots and save the plot as image. Then open the surface goals (i.e drag force and lift force) and show the plots and save it. Hence, the flow simulation is done on airfoil.
AIR FOIL GEOMETRY:
Intial Curve formed with the given NACA data
3D model
CONDITIONS:
Airfoil at various angles of attack (0, 2, 4, 6, 8, 10 degrees).
External Flow
Fluid: AIR
Time Dependent:
Total Time step 5 s and Output Time Step 1 s
Density: 1.225 kg/m^3
Inlet Velocity: 600 m/s
Case-1 0 degree of attack
Velocity Distribution
Drag Force plot
Lift force plot
Values of drag and lift force
Case-2 2 degree of attack
Velocity Distribution
Drag Force plot
Lift force plot
Values of drag and lift force
Case-3 4 degree of attack
Drag Force plot
Lift force plot
Values of drag and lift force
Case-4 6 degree of attack
Drag force plot
Lift froce plot
Values of drag and lift force
Case-5 8 degree of attack
Drag force plot
Lift froce plot
Values of drag and lift force
Case-6 10 degree of attack
Drag force plot
Lift froce plot
Values of drag and lift force
Conclusions:
Using the SOLIDWORKS Flow Simulation, successful analysis the NACA-0017 airfoil there are various angles of attack (0, 2, 4, 6, 8, 10 degrees).When increase in angle of attack, the number of iterations required to give the result get reduced. When increase in angle of attack, Drag force increases slowly and lift force increases rapidly. When increase in angle of attack, the velocity of air over the airfoil increased.