Flow simulation over a NACA 0010 airfoil for varying values of angle of attack using SOLIDWORKS

AIM: To model and simulate the flow over a NACA 0010 airfoil for different angles of attack

OBJECTIVES:

• To mode a NACA 0010 airfoil
• To simulate flow of air over a NACA 0010 for different angles of attack
• To compare the lift forces for different angles of attack
• To compare drag forces for different angles of attack

THEORY

Air Foil

An airfoil is the cross-sectional shape of a wing, blade (of a propeller, rotor, or turbine), or sail. An airfoil-shaped body moving 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 a symmetric curvature of upper and lower surfaces. Foils of similar function designed with water as the working fluid are called hydrofoils.

Angle of attack

In fluid dynamics, angle of attack is the angle between a reference line on a body (often the chord line of an airfoil) and the vector representing the relative motion between the body and the fluid through which it is moving. Angle of attack is the angle between the body's reference line and the oncoming flow. This article focuses on the most common application, the angle of attack of a wing or airfoil moving through air.

Effect of angle of attack

Increases as the angle of attack increase the lift force increase proportionately. And a certain point, called critical angle of attack, upper surface flow is more separated and the airfoil or wing is producing its maximum coefficient of lift.The study of airfoil behavior to varying angle of attacks is made in order to determine the best possible dimensions for practical conditions. In most airplanes, this is about 16 to 18 degrees. During a cruise, the requirement is to maintain the angle of attack where the total drag on the airplane is minimum so as to use the minimum thrust and therefore, minimum fuel consumption. This could occur at an angle of about 3 to 5 degrees.

AIR-FOIL SKETCH AND MODEL

NACA 0010 SKETCH

NACA 0010 MODEL

INPUT CHARACTERISTICS

Geometric Parameters of the airfoil

NACA 0010 airfoil

Chord length:- 1 m

Extrusion:- 0.20 m

Data file:-https://drive.google.com/file/d/1J4eEmstls_EHeo2FKDWNpjtO9W5kU8z7/view?usp=sharing

Inputs given during the Simulation

• Fluid : Air
• Density : 1.225 kg/(m3)
• Speed of air flow taken : 600 m/s
• 2D computational domain is used

PROCEDURE

1. An airfoil is created by using convert entities then line command.
2. For the different angle of attacks rotate entities is used.
3. The airfoil is extruded to 0.2 m. Now save the file.
4. The flow simulation is created using the wizard menu.
5. The analysis type is selected as external. Time-dependent is selected.
6. Total analysis time is selected as 5 sec and output time is 1sec.
7. The fluid is selected as air and velocity parameter over X-direction is selected as 600m/s and then click finish.
8. Now a computational domain is created by using the 2D option.
9. The computational domain is expanded along both y-directions and x-direction in such a way that the length after the wake region should be 5 times the length ahead of wake region.
10. The Global mesh is defined and the local mesh is defined by selecting the surface. It is refined up to a level of 3.
11. The goals selected are liftforce and drag force against the selected surface.
12. Run the simulation.
13. Now a cut plot is made along x-direction and velocity over the airfoil is selected.
14. Color refining is given 200.
15. Goal plots are plotted for drag force and drag forces vs the number of iterations
16. The above procedure is followed for each value of angle of attack and the following results are used to plot the necessary graphs.

RESULTS AND PLOTS

SG Force(X)1: Drag Force

SG Force(Y)1: Lift Force

Angle of attack = `0^o`

Velocity Cutplot

Drag Force(SG Force (X)1)

Lift Force(SG Force(Y)1)

Angle of attack = `2^o`

Velocity Cutplot

Drag Force(SG Force (X)1)

Lift Force(SG Force(Y)1)

Angle of attack = `4^o`

Velocity Cutplot

Drag Force(SG Force (X)1)

Lift Force(SG Force(Y)1)

Angle of attack = `6^o`

Velocity Cutplot

Drag Force(SG Force (X)1)

Lift Force(SG Force(Y)1)

Angle of attack = `8^o`

Velocity Cutplot

Drag Force(SG Force (X)1)

Lift Force(SG Force(Y)1)

Angle of attack = `10^o`

Velocity Cutplot

Drag Force(SG Force (X)1)

Lift Force(SG Force(Y)1)

TABULATED DATA FOR COMPARISON

VISUAL COMPARISON

OBSERVATIONS

• From the plots above,we can observe that both drag force and lift force are directly proportional to the angle of attack
• Drag force increases gradually w.r.t angle of attack
• Lift force increases rapidly w.r.t angle of attack

CONCLUSION

By following the steps above, we were succesfully able to simulate flow over an airfoil for different values of angle of attack and plot the relation of max lift and drag force w.r.t angle of attack