Numerical simulation of surface curvature effect on aerodynamic performance of different types of airfoils

Abstract

The development of car modification using rear wings or spoilers, underlies the research on the aerodynamic performance of airfoil. The influence of aerodynamic forces will produce a down force to the bottom of the vehicle. The present paper investigate airfoil NACA 0012, NACA 4415, GOE 528 and GOE 652 to estimate the effectiveness of airfoil shape based on different angles of attack. The numerical simulation has been done using ANSYS Fluent to obtain drag coefficient, lift coefficient and lift-to-drag ratio of all cases. In addition, the drag and down forces have been calculated with respect to airfoil geometry features. The main objective in this paper is finding the effect of airfoil surface specification as a part of airfoil geometry features. The results observe that the highest lift coefficient value was achieved by GOE 652 which was equal to CL=1.9310 at 7 degree angle while the highest lift-to-drag ratio achieved by NACA 4415 which was equal to 100.8359. The highest down force was 1906.847 N at 15 degree by GOE 652 airfoil. The results show that the airfoil GOE 652 has the most effective surface area among the four airfoils.