Computational Simulation of the Flow Past an Airfoil for an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle
L. Velázquez-Araque, J. Nožicka
This paper deals with the numerical simulation of
the two-dimensional, incompressible, steady air flow
past a NACA 2415 airfoil and four modifications of this
one. The modification of this airfoil was made in order
to create a blowing outlet with the shape of a step on
the suction surface. Therefore, five different locations
along the cord line for this blowing outlet were analyzed.
This analysis involved the aerodynamic performance
which meant obtaining lift, drag and pitching moment
coefficients curves as a function of the angle of attack
for the situation where the engine of the aerial vehicle is
turned off called the no blowing condition by means
computational fluid dynamics. The RNG k-e model is
utilized to describe the turbulent flow process. The
simulations were held at a Reynolds number of 105.
Results allowed obtaining lift and drag forces and
pitching moment coefficient and also the location of the
separation and reattachment point in some cases for
different angles of attack, from 0 to 16 degrees with the
smallest increment of 4 degrees. Finally, numerical
results were compared with results obtained from wind
tunnel tests by means of an aerodynamic balance and
also oil and smoke visualization techniques and found
to be in very good agreement. Full Text
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