ANALYSIS OF FLOW DYNAMICS OF A NACA 2412 AIRFOIL WITH CAVITY THROUGH NUMERICAL SIMULATION AND WIND TUNNEL EXPERIMENT

Abstract

The paper presents the study of fluid flow analysis of NACA 2412 airfoil having cavities on its suction surface at different chord wise location from leading edge to trailing edge by numerical simulation and wind tunnel experiment. In this work, the behavior of a twodimensional model equipped with a span wise adjusted semicircular cavity positioned at 0.25C, 0.50C and 0.75C has been researched and compared with standard NACA 2412 airfoil. The two-dimensional airfoil models were created in SOLIDWORKS and mesh are created for numerical analysis using ANSYS Meshing, which is executed in Fluent for numerical iteration solution. The Spallart-Allmaras turbulence model has been used. From CFD-Post Coefficient of lift (Cl), Coefficient of drag (Cd) and lift to drag ratio, velocity streamline, velocity vector and coefficient of pressure along the chord length were monitored. Experimental tests have been performed on four wooden airfoil models at three different velocities. First the coefficient of lift (Cl), coefficient of drag (Cd) and lift to drag ratio readings were taken for the standard airfoil for different angles of attack varying the wind tunnel speed. Then the modified surface airfoil readings were taken at similar flow conditions. Adding cavity at 0.50C and 0.75C show higher lift coefficient values at all speeds. Drag coefficient increases with the increase of AoA and is minimum for airfoil with cavity at 0.50C. A delay of stall is seen for airfoils with cavity at 0.50C and 0.75C.