International Research Journal of Engineering and Technology (IRJET) e-ISSN: 2395-0056

Volume: 08 Issue: 04 | Apr 2021 www.irjet.net p-ISSN: 2395-0072

Simulation of Flow over Airfoil

Mangesh Shinde1, Vishal Shinde2, Siddhant Shirode3, Devashish Shriwas4
1-4Under Graduate Students, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Vishwakarma Institute of Technology, Pune
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Abstract - The efficiency of an airfoil (NACA 0100-35) is
investigated in this report using the finite element analysis
process, which uses 2D computational fluid dynamics
simulations based on ANSYS to find the lift and drag
coefficients under various conditions. The following are the force:
boundary conditions: The airflow velocity is 10m/s, the
density is 1kg/m3, the gauge pressure is 0 and the density is
1kg/m3. During the simulation, the Reynolds number is also
taken into account. As a consequence, the simulation depicts
the airfoil's stalling points and efficiencies at various angles
of attack.

1. Introduction

Given the critical position that aircraft manufacturing

has played, the selection of airfoils, which are the section
side of airplane wings, should be based on a set of
criteria. ANSYS is one of the most commonly used
programs in this area, and it is used to obtain accurate
results when simulating airfoils. This study aims to look
at an airfoil (NACA 0010-35) with various airflow angles
using ANSYS and 2D CFD (Computational Fluid
Dynamics) simulation. The simulation is necessary to
obtain stalling points and efficiencies by determining the
values of drag and lift coefficients.

2. Parameters of the Airfoil

2.1 Lift and Drag

Figure 1: Airflow through the airfoil

When an airfoil moves through airflow (as shown in

figure 1), an aerodynamic force is produced on it,
according to Tom Benson's article[1] (as is showed in
figure 2 and figure 3).

The following components make up this aerodynamic

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The fluid density is Drag(D) or Lift(L), v is the object's
speed relative to the fluid, A is the cross-sectional area,
and CD and CL are the drag and lift coefficients,
respectively.

Figure 2: Wing side view (airfoil)

Figure 3: Lift and Drag forces Vs Angle of Attack

The lift and drag forces on any object are

proportionally dependent on the density of the fluid
and the relative speed between the object and the
fluid, as shown by the equation above.

2.2 Lift and Drag

The equation for the Lift Coefficient, which can be

rearranged from the Lift equation, is as follows:

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NACA0012's stalling angle at a specific Reynolds number.

Where L is the lift, is the fluid's mass, v is the fluid's

velocity, and A is the related surface area [2]. The
relevant surface area for the airfoil is a plane shape area
[3], which is related to the drag coefficient forms. The lift
coefficient is normally calculated experimentally,
according to T. Benson [4], but it is a number that can
explain all the complex dependencies of form,
inclination, and some flow conditions on aircraft lift.
This study is based on ANSYS calculations.

Besides, the Drag Coefficient equation can be rearranged

as follows from the Drag equation:

Where D is the drag force, which is the force factor in the

direction of flow velocity, is the fluid's mass density, is
the object's speed relative to the fluid and is the
reference area.

CL and CD could be determined using the ANSYS method

in this article.

2.3 Reynolds number

The following equation displays the Reynolds number

equation:

Where is the airflow density (1kg/m3), v is the airflow

velocity (50m/s), D is 1m, and is the air viscosity
(1.460e-5).

Patil et al.[5] used CFD analysis to investigate the Lift

and Drag forces at different angles of attack for Reynolds
numbers ranging from 10,000 to 800,000, and found that
the lift and drag forces increased as the Reynolds
number increased. Re is 3.42 x 106 in this simulation, as
determined by the above equation. As a consequence,
the flow is chaotic. Only the relationship between the
angle of attack and its consequences is investigated in
this case. The angle of attack is the angle formed by the
relative wind and the chord, as shown in Figure 3. The
angle of attack increases as the leading edge, or front
point of the airfoil, rises, which is linked to an increase
in lift and drag force [3]. Previous research by Sahin et
al. [6] looked into the effect of stalling angle on lift and
drag coefficient. Meanwhile, Bhat et al.[7] calculated

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3 Simulation

3.1 Choose an Airfoil

The symmetrical portion of the airfoil NACA 0010-35

was chosen from the UIUC Airfoil Database(n.d.) to
simulate (showed in Figure 4).

Figure 4: Geometry for NACA 0010-35

Table 1 shows the data that was downloaded from the

UIUC Airfoil Database (n.d.) and imported into the
ANSYS workbench with Notepad.

Table 1: Data for NACA 0010-35 Airfoil

#Point X-cord Y-cord Z-cord

1 1.00000 0.00100 0.00
2 0.95000 0.01178 0.00
3 0.90000 0.02100 0.00
4 0.80000 0.03500 0.00
5 0.70000 0.04389 0.00
6 0.60000 0.04867 0.00
7 0.50000 0.05000 0.00
8 0.40000 0.04878 0.00
9 0.30000 0.04478 0.00
10 0.20000 0.03789 0.00
11 0.15000 0.03289 0.00
12 0.10000 0.02667 0.00
13 0.07500 0.02289 0.00
14 0.05000 0.01844 0.00
15 0.02500 0.01267 0.00
16 0.01250 0.00878 0.00
17 0.00000 0.00000 0.00
18 0.01250 -0.00878 0.00
19 0.02500 -0.01267 0.00
20 0.05000 -0.01844 0.00
21 0.07500 -0.02289 0.00
22 0.10000 -0.02667 0.00
23 0.15000 -0.03289 0.00
24 0.20000 -0.03789 0.00
25 0.30000 -0.04478 0.00
26 0.40000 -0.04878 0.00
27 0.50000 -0.05000 0.00
28 0.60000 -0.04867 0.00
29 0.70000 -0.04389 0.00
30 0.80000 -0.03500 0.00
31 0.90000 -0.02100 0.00
32 0.95000 -0.01178 0.00
33 1.00000 -0.00100 0.00

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3.2 Meshing Since it is a simple and popular turbulence model used

The airfoil was sketched in a C-shape domain with a size of in industrial applications, the realizable k-ε was chosen.
12.5 m for both the semicircle and the rectangle. Figure 5
Fluid air was used as a material in this category.
demonstrates the geometry configuration, with the
airfoil in the middle of the figure. Boundary conditions zone: Inlet was chosen as the zone
condition.

Monitors: The Residual Convergence for the monitors

were set to 1e-6.

Second-order upwind was used as the solution process.

Initialization of the solution: The initial values were

calculated from the inlet.

Calculation boundary conditions: The following formulas

are used to measure the velocity variable in the X and Y
directions:

Figure 5: Geometry setup x = [Cos (angle of attack)] * (velocity)

3.3 Meshing

C-Mesh was added to both airfoils to ensure the model's y = [Sin (angle of attack)] *
precision by obtaining a more refined mesh over the
trail's edge and the airfoil's surface. The simulation's C- (velocity) Other options:
mesh is shown in Figure 6 below:
- Pressure: 0

- Velocity: 10

- Density: 1

3.5 Run the calculation

Number of Iterations: A total of 1000 iterations were

used to ensure that all residuals converged as the angle
of attacks increased.

4 Results

More than 30 running tests with various angles of

attacks were performed to construct the simulations for
the airfoil, as shown in table 4. The lift and drag
coefficients, velocity and pressure behaviors against the
airfoil, and the effect of airflow over the airfoil will all be
shown in the data.

Figure 6: C-mesh

3.4 Set up the test

For the exam, the following settings were used:

Eleni et al. [8] compared various turbulence models,

such as Spalart-Allmaras, Realizable k-, and k- shear street
transport.

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Table 2: Results

Angle of Inlet Coefficient of Coefficient of Efficiency

Attack Velocity Drag Lift Lift(CL) Drag(CD) (CL/CD)
-10 10.0 -48.2165 3.8153 -0.78721 0.07786 -10.11008
-9 10.0 -25.0692 2.2239 -0.40929 0.04538 -9.01831
-8 10.0 -25.2169 2.2068 -0.41170 0.04504 -9.14165
-7 10.0 -23.4177 1.1719 -0.38233 0.02392 -15.98655
-6 10.0 -17.9682 1.1151 -0.29336 0.02276 -12.89117
-5 10.0 -10.1540 0.8789 -0.16578 0.01794 -9.24213
-4 10.0 -1.2204 0.8673 -0.01992 0.01770 -1.12564
-3 10.0 -2.5278 0.7587 -0.04127 0.01548 -2.66544
-2 10.0 7.7662 0.5687 0.12680 0.01161 10.92529
-1 10.0 16.0239 0.4302 0.26161 0.00878 29.79618
0 10.0 11.8693 0.5942 0.19378 0.01213 15.98080
1 10.0 45.1543 0.3145 0.73721 0.00642 114.87415
2 10.0 -12.8597 0.3173 -0.20995 0.00647 -32.42742
3 10.0 -9.7396 0.4537 -0.15901 0.00926 -17.17455
4 10.0 -8.6836 0.3396 -0.14177 0.00693 -20.45408
5 10.0 5.1234 0.8007 0.08365 0.01634 5.11925
6 10.0 10.9244 0.8918 0.17836 0.01820 9.79952
7 10.0 24.2787 1.2402 0.39639 0.02531 15.66115
8 10.0 54.2670 4.2763 0.88599 0.08727 10.15226
9 10.0 75.2381 2.7774 1.22838 0.05668 21.67168
10 10.0 170.9300 16.2488 2.79069 0.33161 8.41564
11 10.0 -28.8089 0.0629 -0.47035 0.00128 -366.34717
12 10.0 38.5732 22.5133 0.62977 0.45946 1.37068
13 10.0 -3.8665 1.4131 -0.06313 0.02884 -2.18895
14 10.0 12.7013 11.0943 0.20737 0.22641 0.91588
15 10.0 28.8381 30.4640 0.47083 0.62171 0.75730
16 10.0 44.4653 14.8096 0.72596 0.30224 2.40197
17 10.0 -14.7504 0.7694 -0.24082 0.01570 -15.33674
18 10.0 -13.1842 1.0354 -0.21525 0.02113 -10.18636
19 10.0 -1.7991 4.0422 -0.02937 0.08249 -0.35606
20 10.0 18.4898 11.1259 0.30187 0.22706 1.32950

4.1 The Airfoil's Maximum Lift Coefficient CL (Stalling

Point)

The angle of attack was increased to achieve the optimal

CL, as seen in the table above (Stalling point). According
to the table and figure 7, as the angle of attack increases,
the CL increases as well, until the angle of attack is set to
10, at which point the CL begins to decrease, and the
angle of attack 10 is referred to as the stalling point,
where the airfoil's maximum CL is found.

Figure 7: Lift and Drag Coefficients vs Angle of Attacks

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4.2 Maximum Efficiency of the Airfoil

Since efficiency is defined as the ratio of C L to CD at each

angle of attack, it can be seen in figure 8 that the airfoil's
maximum efficiency is achieved at an angle of attack (1).

Figure 10: Contours of static pressure (Angle=5)

Figure 8: The Efficiency vs Angle of Attack

4.3 Contours of the static pressure of the airfoil

As airfoil1 passes through airflow and the angle of attack

increases, the pressure progressively increases and
appears on the bottom surface of the airfoil, as shown in
the diagrams below (figures 9,10,11,12). According to
Bernoulli's theory, the airfoil's upper surface has low
pressure while the lower surface has higher pressure,
causing the flow to accelerate on the upper surface while
decreasing on the lower surface.

Figure 11: Contours of static pressure (Angle=10)

Figure 9: Contours of static pressure (Angle=0)

Figure 12: Contours of static pressure (Angle=15)

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4.4 Contours of velocity magnitude of the airfoil

When airfoil1 passes through airflow and the angle of

attack increases, the velocity progressively increases and
appears on the top surface of the airfoil, as shown in the
diagrams below ( figure 13,14,15,16). As the angle of
attack increases after the stalling point, the air
separation will also be noticeable.

Figure 16: Contours of velocity magnitude (Angle=15)

4.5 Velocity Stream Function of the Airfoil

As airfoil1 passes through airflow and exceeds the Full

CL, air separation begins and a vortex forms as the angle
of attack increases, as shown in figure 17,18,19,20.

Figure 13: Contours of velocity magnitude (Angle=0)

Figure 17: Velocity stream function (Angle=0)

Figure 14: Contours of velocity magnitude (Angle=5)

Figure 18: Velocity stream function (Angle=5)

Figure 15: Contours of velocity magnitude (Angle=10)

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REFERENCES

[1] T Benson. National Aeronautics and Space

Administration. Aerodynamic Forces, retrieved from
http://www.grc.nasa.gov/WWW/k-
12/airplane/presar.html (n.d.)

[2] Cited from Wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lift_coefficient

[3] IJER, 3 154-158, K S Patel, S B Patel, U B Patel, et al

(2014)

[4] T Benson. National Aeronautics and Space

Administration. Aerodynamic Forces, retrieved from
http://www.grc.nasa.gov/WWW/k-
Figure 19: Velocity stream function (Angle=10) 12/airplane/liftco.html (n.d.)

[5] Procedia Engineering 127 1363–1369, B S Patil, H R

Thakare (2015)

[6] International Journal of Materials, Mechanics, and

Manufacturing 3 1 (I. Sahin, A. Acir) (2015)

[7] S S Bhat, R N Govardhan. Journal of Fluids and

Structures 41 166-174 (2013)

[8] M P Dionissios, D C Eleni, T I Athanasios JMER, vol. 4,

no. 3, pp. 100-111 (2012)

[9] Investigation of Flow over the Airfoil, Attack

Shiming Xiao, a and Zutai Chen

Figure 20: Velocity stream function (Angle=15)

5 Discussions and Conclusion

ANSYS Workbench fluent software Simulation was used

to select and examine this symmetrical airfoil. This study
aims to find the airfoil's maximum Lift Coefficient
(stalling point) and maximum Efficiency through a
series of running calculations at various angles of attack.
When all of the results for different angles of attacks are
compared, it can be shown that NACA0010- 35 has the
stalling point at a 10- degree angle. Since the stalling
point is lower, the airfoil will have more time to detach
from the air, which will assist in lifting the aircraft. When
an airfoil approaches full efficiency with a lower angle of
attack, however, it has a higher Maximum Efficiency.

Appendix

The following are the details and geometry for the

NACA0010-35 airfoil from the UIUC Airfoil Database:
http://m-selig.ae.illinois.edu/ads/coord_database.html#N

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