CFD Simulation and Wind Tunnel Test of NACA 4412 Airfoil Wing Section at Different Angles of Attack

• Main Author: Ahmad Khairuddin bin Ahmad Kamal, Ahmad Khairuddin
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: Universiti Teknologi Petronas 2008
• Subjects: TJ Mechanical engineering and machinery
• Online Access: http://utpedia.utp.edu.my/648/1/Ahmad_Khairuddin_bin_Ahmad_Kamal.pdf; http://utpedia.utp.edu.my/648/

Airfoil can be defined as a body shape so that lift can be generated as fluid flow through it. The study of thin aerofoil by changes in a few characteristic such as different angle of attack, α would provide changes in lift, drag, and pitching moment coefficients. In order to identify the changes, Computational Fluid Dynamic (CFD) simulation has been applied by using ANSYS, FLUENT and GAMBIT software and followed by experiments conducted in a low speed wind tunnel to obtain measurement results. Shape of the body is important in achieving the desired result. NACA 4412 airfoil, which is high lift wing type, was chosen as the airfoil shapes in the present work. It was identified along the entire project. The aerodynamics characteristics of this airfoil have been shown by the plot of the coefficient graph lift and drag. This results obtained by both CFD and wind tunnel test. Although there is a little differences between results of these two methods, but, the general trend is the same. The results were compared with previous experimental results and they are in good agreement. It can be concluded that Reynolds Number values are affecting the characteristic of the airfoil and this is the reason for the small differences of recent results from others. However, a few recommendations have been outlined for further investigation.