Airfoil Project
(Spring 2022)
Project
Research and quantify a fluid mechanics-related concept of our choosing
Mathematically uncover the difference in function between an airplane's airfoil and a race car's spoiler given their difference in orientations
Airfoil Cross-Section Visualized with Airflow Streamlines
Contributions
Researching NACA 0012 airfoil components and applying fluid physics concepts to them
Performed computations in Engineering Equation Solver (EES, below)
Generated visual demonstrations of our findings
Results
Obtained quantitative analysis of how the inverse chord angles affect airplanes and race cars for their individual desired effects (below)
Key Learnings: given the lift generated by each in their individual conditions, the car prefers the lift force to be transferred to the wheels, into the ground, while the airplane prefers transmission into the fuselage to elevate it off the ground
Future Work
Analyze different NACA airfoils to observe how each produce lift best
non-symmetric vs symmetric airfoil geometries
Analyze different airfoils for different airplane wing shapes or lift requirements
Analyze airfoils in different fluids (water, air, etc.)