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At least 235 records · Page 13
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS1997

Parametric Investigation of a High-Lift Airfoil at High Reynolds Numbers

A new two-dimensional, three-element, advanced high-lift research airfoil has been tested in the NASA Langley Research Center s Low-Turbulence Pressure Tunnel at a chord Reynolds number up to 1.6 x 107. The components of this high-lift airfoil have been designed using a incompressible computational code (INS2D). The design was to provide high maximum-lift values while maintaining attached flow on the single-segment flap at landing conditions. The performance of the new NASA research airfoil is compared to a similar reference high-lift airfoil. On the new high-lift airfoil the effects of Reynolds number on slat and flap rigging have been studied experimentally, as well as the Mach number effects. The performance trend of the high-lift design is comparable to that predicted by INS2D over much of the angle-of-attack range. However, the code did not accurately predict the airfoil performance or the configuration-based trends near maximum lift where the compressibility effect could play a major role.

Lin, John C.↗
NASA NTRS1940

Wind-Tunnel Investigation of the Lift Characteristics of an NACA 27-212 Airfoil Equipped with Two Types of Flap, Special Report

An investigation has been made in the NACA 7- by 10-foot wind tunnel of a large chord NACA 27-212 airfoil with a 20% chord split flap and with two arrangements of a 25.66% chord slotted flap to determine the section lift characteristics as affected by flap deflection for the split flap and as affected by flap deflection, flap position, and slot shape for the slotted flap. For the two arrangements of the slotted flap, the flap positions for maximum section lift are given. Comparable data on the NACA 23012 airfoil equipped with similar flaps are also given. On the basis of maximum section lift coefficient, the slotted flap with an easy slot entry was slightly better than either the split flap or the slotted flap with a sharp slot entry. With both types of flap the decrease in the angle of attack, for maximum section lift coefficient, with flap deflection is large for the NACA 27-212 airfoil as compared with the NACA 23012 airfoil. Also with both flaps, the maximum section lift coefficient obtained with flaps is much lower for the NACA 27-212 airfoil than for the NACA 23012 airfoil.

Swanson, Robert S.↗
NASA NTRS2010

Effect of High-Fidelity Ice Accretion Simulations on the Performance of a Full-Scale Airfoil Model

The simulation of ice accretion on a wing or other surface is often required for aerodynamic evaluation, particularly at small scale or low-Reynolds number. While there are commonly accepted practices for ice simulation, there are no established and validated guidelines. The purpose of this article is to report the results of an experimental study establishing a high-fidelity, full-scale, iced-airfoil aerodynamic performance database. This research was conducted as a part of a larger program with the goal of developing subscale aerodynamic simulation methods for iced airfoils. Airfoil performance testing was carried out at the ONERA F1 pressurized wind tunnel using a 72-in. (1828.8-mm) chord NACA 23012 airfoil over a Reynolds number range of 4.5x10(exp 6) to 16.0 10(exp 6) and a Mach number range of 0.10 to 0.28. The high-fidelity, ice-casting simulations had a significant impact on the aerodynamic performance. A spanwise-ridge ice shape resulted in a maximum lift coefficient of 0.56 compared to the clean value of 1.85 at Re = 15.9x10(exp 6) and M = 0.20. Two roughness and streamwise shapes yielded maximum lift values in the range of 1.09 to 1.28, which was a relatively small variation compared to the differences in the ice geometry. The stalling characteristics of the two roughness and one streamwise ice simulation maintained the abrupt leading-edge stall type of the clean NACA 23012 airfoil, despite the significant decrease in maximum lift. Changes in Reynolds and Mach number over the large range tested had little effect on the iced-airfoil performance.

Broeren, Andy P.↗
NASA NTRS2012

Mechanism of Water Droplet Breakup Near the Leading Edge of an Airfoil

This work presents results of an experimental study on droplet deformation and breakup near the leading edge of an airfoil. The experiment was conducted in the rotating rig test cell at the Instituto Nacional de Tecnica Aeroespacial (INTA) in Madrid, Spain. The airfoil model was placed at the end of the rotating arm and a monosize droplet generator produced droplets that fell from above, perpendicular to the path of the airfoil. The interaction between the droplets and the airfoil was captured with high speed imaging and allowed observation of droplet deformation and breakup as the droplet approached the airfoil near the stagnation line. Image processing software was used to measure the position of the droplet centroid, equivalent diameter, perimeter, area, and the major and minor axes of an ellipse superimposed over the deforming droplet. The horizontal and vertical displacement of each droplet against time was also measured, and the velocity, acceleration, Weber number, Bond number, Reynolds number, and the drag coefficients were calculated along the path of the droplet to the beginning of breakup. Droplet deformation is defined and studied against main parameters. The high speed imaging allowed observation of the actual mechanism of breakup and identification of the sequence of configurations from the initiation of the breakup to the disintegration of the droplet. Results and comparisons are presented for droplets of diameters in the range of 500 to 1800 microns, and airfoil velocities of 70 and 90 m/sec.

Vargas, Mario↗
NASA NTRS2012

Mechanism of Water Droplet Breakup near the Leading Edge of an Airfoil

This work presents results of an experimental study on droplet deformation and breakup near the leading edge of an airfoil. The experiment was conducted in the rotating rig test cell at the Instituto Nacional de T cnica Aeroespacial (INTA) in Madrid, Spain. The airfoil model was placed at the end of the rotating arm and a monosize droplet generator produced droplets that fell from above, perpendicular to the path of the airfoil. The interaction between the droplets and the airfoil was captured with high speed imaging and allowed observation of droplet deformation and breakup as the droplet approached the airfoil near the stagnation line. Image processing software was used to measure the position of the droplet centroid, equivalent diameter, perimeter, area, and the major and minor axes of an ellipse superimposed over the deforming droplet. The horizontal and vertical displacement of each droplet against time was also measured, and the velocity, acceleration, Weber number, Bond number, Reynolds number, and the drag coefficients were calculated along the path of the droplet to the beginning of breakup. Droplet deformation is defined and studied against main parameters. The high speed imaging allowed observation of the actual mechanism of breakup and identification of the sequence of configurations from the initiation of the breakup to the disintegration of the droplet. Results and comparisons are presented for droplets of diameters in the range of 500 to 1800 micrometers, and airfoil velocities of 70 and 90 meters/second.

Vargas, Mario↗
NASA NTRS2017

Ice Roughness and Thickness Evolution on a Swept NACA 0012 Airfoil

Several recent studies have been performed in the Icing Research Tunnel (IRT) at NASA Glenn Research Center focusing on the evolution, spatial variations, and proper scaling of ice roughness on airfoils without sweep exposed to icing conditions employed in classical roughness studies. For this study, experiments were performed in the IRT to investigate the ice roughness and thickness evolution on a 91.44-cm (36-in.) chord NACA 0012 airfoil, swept at 30-deg with 0deg angle of attack, and exposed to both Appendix C and Appendix O (SLD) icing conditions. The ice accretion event times used in the study were less than the time required to form substantially three-dimensional structures, such as scallops, on the airfoil surface. Following each ice accretion event, the iced airfoils were scanned using a ROMER Absolute Arm laser-scanning system. The resulting point clouds were then analyzed using the self-organizing map approach of McClain and Kreeger to determine the spatial roughness variations along the surfaces of the iced airfoils. The resulting measurements demonstrate linearly increasing roughness and thickness parameters with ice accretion time. Further, when compared to dimensionless or scaled results from unswept airfoil investigations, the results of this investigation indicate that the mechanisms for early stage roughness and thickness formation on swept wings are similar to those for unswept wings.

glaze icing↗
NASA NTRS2020

Optimization of Low Reynolds Number Airfoils for Martian Rotor Applications Using an Evolutionary Algorithm

The Mars Helicopter (MH) will be flying on the NASA Mars 2020 rover mission scheduled to launch in July of 2020. Research is being performed at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) and NASA Ames Research Center to extend the current capabilities and develop the Mars Science Helicopter (MSH) as the next possible step for Martian rotorcraft. The low atmospheric density and the relatively small-scale rotors result in very low chord-based Reynolds number flows over the rotor airfoils. The low Reynolds number regime results in rapid performance degradation for conventional airfoils due to laminar separation without reattachment. Unconventional airfoil shapes with sharp leading edges are explored and optimized for aerodynamic performance at representative Reynolds-Mach combinations for a concept rotor. Sharp leading edges initiate immediate flow separation, and the occurrence of large-scale vortex shedding is found to contribute to the relative performance increase of the optimized airfoils, compared to conventional airfoil shapes. The oscillations are shown to occur independent from laminar-turbulent transition and therefore result in sustainable performance at lower Reynolds numbers. Comparisons are presented to conventional airfoil shapes and peak lift-to-drag ratio increases between 17% and 41% are observed for similar section lift.

Koning, Witold J.↗
DOE OSTI2022

Regularizing Invertible Neural Networks for Airfoil Design Through Dimension Reduction

This work examines how dimension reduction can improve the performance of invertible neural networks (INN) for airfoil design. Design workflows are typically expensive, relying on many evaluations of high fidelity computational fluid dynamics (CFD) models. Furthermore, the inverse design problem is typically ill-posed. That is, multiple valid solutions exist that satisfy the design criteria. Regularization can reduce this inverse design space and simplify the problem. We study the use of subspace-based input dimension reduction to act as a regularizer for the INN model and improve the recovery of new airfoil shapes with desired performance characteristics. We find that the dimension reduction identifies two dominant modes, relating to airfoil thickness and camber, that optimally determine the airfoil's aerodynamics. We demonstrate the capability of the proposed INN model to generate 100 airfoils that satisfy the specific aerodynamic and structural characteristics.

airfoil design↗
NASA NTRS2017

An Experimental Study and Database for Tip Vortex Flow From an Airfoil

An experimental investigation of tip vortices from a NACA0012 airfoil is conducted in a low-speed wind tunnel at a chord Reynolds number (Rc) of 4×10(exp 4 ). Data for the stationary airfoil at various angles of attack (alpha) are first discussed. Detailed flow-field surveys are done for two cases: alpha = 10deg with attached flow and alpha = 25deg with massive flow separation. Data include mean velocity, streamwise vorticity, and turbulent stresses at various streamwise locations. For all cases, the vortex core is seen to involve a mean velocity deficit. The deficits in these cases trace to the airfoil wake, part of which gets wrapped up by the tip vortex. Comparison with data from the literature suggests that with increasing Rc, the deficit turns into an excess, with the transition occurring in the approximate Rc range of 2×10(exp 5) to 5×10(exp 5). Survey results for various shapes of the airfoil wingtip are then presented. The shapes include square and rounded ends and a number of winglet designs. Finally, data under sinusoidal pitching condition, for the airfoil with square ends, are documented. All pitching cases pertain to a mean alpha = 15deg, while the amplitude and frequency are varied. Amplitudes of +/-5deg, +/-10deg, and +/-15deg and reduced frequencies k = 0.08, 0.2, and 0.33 are covered. Digital records of all data and some of the hardware design are made available on a supplemental CD with the electronic version of the paper for those interested in numerical simulation.

turbulence↗
NASA NTRS2022

Preliminary Airfoil Design for Low Reynolds Numbers

Advances in the fields of electronics, batteries, and electric motors have enabled broad adoption of small-scale aircraft for various terrestrial applications. Numerous Micro Aerial Vehicles (MAVs) and small Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), both civil and military, are in use today. Operation at their design flight condition often requires rotors, propellers, or wings to perform at Reynolds numbers significantly below 500,000 [1]. Airfoil performance at low Reynolds numbers is generally characterized by low aerodynamic performance (i.e. the attainable lift-to-drag ratio) compared to performance of airfoils at higher Reynolds numbers. The critical chord-based Reynolds number for conventional airfoils lies around Rec = 100,000 to Rec = 500,000 [2]. Below this critical Reynolds number, laminar separation of the boundary layer is usually the cause for poor performance. Researchers have found that below the critical Reynolds number, flat and cambered plates can outperform smooth airfoils. Circular-arc cambered plates especially have remarkable performance advantages compared to conventional airfoil shapes [3].

airfoil↗
NASA NTRS1944

Profile-Drag Coefficients of Conventional and Low-Drag Airfoils as Obtained in Flight

Results of flight tests indicate that profile-drag coefficients which were obtained with the low-drag airfoils were lower than with the conventional types over the range of light coefficients tested. For comparable conditions of the lift coefficient and Reynolds Number, the low-drag airfoils have profile-drag coefficients which may be 27 percent lower than the profile drag of the conventional airfoils tested. Detailed results are presented graphically.

AIRFOILS - NAVY N-22 - CHARACTERISTICS↗
NASA NTRS1971

The Determination of the Geometries of Multiple-Element Airfoils Optimized for Maximum Lift Coefficient

Optimum airfoils in the sense of maximum lift coefficient are obtained by a newly developed method. The maximum lift coefficient is achieved by requiring that the turbulent skin friction be zero in the pressure rise region on the upper surface. Under this constraint, the pressure distribution is optimized. The optimum pressure distribution consists of a uniform stagnation pressure on the lower surface, a uniform minimum pressure on the upper surface immediately downstream of the front stagnation point followed by a Stratford zero skin friction pressure rise. When multiple-element airfoils are under consideration, this optimum pressure distribution appears on every element. The parameters used to specify the pressure distribution on each element are the Reynolds number and the normalized trailing edge velocity. The newly developed method of design computes the velocity distribution on a given airfoil and modifies the airfoil contour in a systematic manner until the desired velocity distribution is achieved. There are no limitations on how many elements the airfoil to be designed can have.

Chen, A. W.↗
NASA NTRS1972

Multiple element airfoils optimized for maximum lift coefficient.

Optimum airfoils in the sense of maximum lift coefficient are obtained for incompressible fluid flow at large Reynolds number. The maximum lift coefficient is achieved by requiring that the turbulent skin friction be zero in the pressure rise region on the airfoil upper surface. Under this constraint, the pressure distribution is optimized. The optimum pressure distribution is a function of Reynolds number and the trailing edge velocity. Geometries of those airfoils which will generate these optimum pressure distributions are obtained using a direct-iterative method which is developed in this study. This method can be used to design airfoils consisting of any number of elements. Numerical examples of one- and two-element airfoils are given. The maximum lift coefficients obtained range from 2 to 2.5.

Ormsbee, A. I.↗
NASA NTRS1974

Single-stage experimental evaluation of tandem-airfoil rotor and stator blading for compressors, part 8

An experimental investigation was conducted with an 0.8 hub/tip ratio, single-stage, axial flow compressor to determine the potential of tandem-airfoil blading for improving the efficiency and stable operating range of compressor stages. The investigation included testing of a baseline stage with single-airfoil blading and two tandem-blade stages. The overall performance of the baseline stage and the tandem-blade stage with a 20-80% loading split was considerably below the design prediction. The other tandem-blade stage, which had a rotor with a 50-50% loading split, came within 4.5% of the design pressure rise (delta P(bar)/P(bar) sub 1) and matched the design stage efficiency. The baseline stage with single-airfoil blading, which was designed to account for the actual rotor inlet velocity profile and the effects of axial velocity ratio and secondary flow, achieved the design predicted performance. The corresponding tandem-blade stage (50-50% loading split in both blade rows) slightly exceeded the design pressure rise but was 1.5 percentage points low in efficiency. The tandem rotors tested during both phases demonstrated higher pressure rise and efficiency than the corresponding single-airfoil rotor, with identical inlet and exit airfoil angles.

Brent, J. A.↗
NASA NTRS1974

Investigation of the Kline-Fogleman airfoil section for rotor blade applications

Wind tunnel tests of a wedgeshaped airfoil with sharp leading edge and a spanwise step were conducted. The airfoil was tested with variations of the following parameters: (1) Reynolds number, (2) step location, (3) step shape, (4) apex angle, and (5) with the step on either the upper or lower surface. The results are compared with a flat plate and with wedge airfoils without a step having the same aspect ratio. Water table tests were conducted for flow visualization and it was determined that the flow separates from the upper surface at low angles of attack. The wind tunnel tests show that the lift/drag ratio of the airfoil is lower than for a flat plate and the pressure data show that the airfoil derives its lift in the same manner as a flat plate.

Lumsdaine, E.↗
NASA NTRS1975

An analytical evaluation of airfoil sections for helicopter rotor applications

An analytical technique was used to evaluate airfoils for helicopter rotor application. This technique permits assessment of the influences of airfoil geometric variations on drag divergence Mach number at lift coefficients from near zero to near maximum lift. Analytical results presented in this paper indicate the compromises in drag divergence Mach number which result from changes in (1) thickness ratio, (2) location of maximum thickness, (3) leading-edge radius, (4) camber addition, and (5) location of maximum camber of NACA four- and five-digit-series airfoils and some 6-series airfoils of potential interest for helicopters. Examples of airfoil sections which combine several of the geometric changes favorable to both advancing and retreating section performance have been presented.

Bingham, G. J.↗
NASA NTRS1975

An investigation on the effect of second-order additional thickness distributions to the upper surface of an NACA 64 sub 1-212 airfoil

An investigation was conducted on a CDC 7600 digital computer to determine the effects of additional thickness distributions to the upper surface of an NACA 64 sub 1 - 212 airfoil. Additional thickness distributions employed were in the form of two second-order polynomial arcs which have a specified thickness at a given chordwise location. The forward arc disappears at the airfoil leading edge, the aft arc disappears at the airfoil trailing edge. At the juncture of the two arcs, x = x, continuity of slope is maintained. The effect of varying the maximum additional thickness and its chordwise location on airfoil lift coefficient, pitching moment, and pressure distribution was investigated. Results were obtained at a Mach number of 0.2 with an angle-of-attack of 6 degrees on the basic NACA 64 sub 1 - 212 airfoil, and all calculations employ the full potential flow equations for two dimensional flow. The relaxation method of Jameson was employed for solution of the potential flow equations.

Hague, D. S.↗