Author(s) :

Patrick Louden.

Volume/Issue :

Abstract :

Airfoil geometry plays a significant role in lift generation and wing performance. Many of its effects have already been theorized through thin-airfoil theory and tested in specific applications. However, there have been few papers with a unified framework to examine the effects of different aspects of airfoil geometry across multiple angles of attack and Reynolds numbers, leading to a lack of concrete information on their relative influences on aerodynamic performance. In this study, four different NACA airfoils with varying cambers, thicknesses, and maximum camber locations were tested using computational fluid dynamics in Ansys Fluent. These airfoils were rotated from 0° to 20° angle of attack in a transient simulation, with data taken every 0.8° starting at 0.8°, at four Reynolds numbers ranging from 1,044,521 to 73,116,483, while recording the coefficient of lift vs. angle of attack curves. Increasing the camber relative to the NACA 2412 increased the circa zero-angle-of-attack (0.8°) lift coefficient by 42.4% compared to the 50% increase in camber. Thickness and maximum camber location had comparatively little effect on lift generation but influenced stall characteristics. These results provide practical insight into how isolated geometric modifications influence aerodynamic performance and may assist preliminary airfoil design before more detailed optimization studies are conducted.