Numerical aerodynamic drag prediction of airfoils

Abstract

In this project, the various components of drag are obtained. Two cases are considered here – the transonic flow over a RAE2822 airfoil and the subsonic flow over a NACA0012 airfoil. For the transonic flow, the total drag, wave drag and viscous drag are obtained. The first two are obtained by integrating the entropy equation along the wake and across the shock respectively. The values obtained showed good agreement of within ten percent variation. For the case of the subsonic flow, the effects of varying the turbulence model was also considered. It was seen that the two-equation of the SST k-ω turbulence model seemed to show better agreement with the experimental trends as opposed to the one equation turbulence model of Spalart-Allmaras.