Airfoil with membrane at low reynolds number
Loading...
Date
2019-06-01
Authors
Abdul Qayyum Bin Roslan
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Abstract
In this project, an experiment was carried out to study the aerodynamic performance on
NACA 2412. The airfoil is divided into two parts which are airfoil with flexible membrane
and rigid airfoil. The airfoils were fabricated using aluminium. A medical rubber sheet was
used as the flexible membrane. By using flexible membrane, the airfoils have the ability to
adapt to the incoming flows by changing their camber automatically, thus balancing the
pressure differences on the upper and lower part of the airfoils to reduce the flow separation.
The airfoils were tested in a wind tunnel. The velocities of the air flow are 6m/s, 9m/s, 12m/s
and 15m/s. The test was carried out with angles of attack ranging from -5 degree to 25
degree. The airfoil section has a chord of 10cm and length of 30cm. The surface area is 0.03
square metre. Detailed descriptions of the experimental design, fabrication, setup and testing
are included in the thesis. The data was analysed using PCD30A software. The results show
that airfoil with flexible membrane has the better aerodynamic performance compared to the
rigid airfoil. Airfoil with flexible membrane produces the highest aerodynamic efficiency
which is 17.27. Flexible membrane airfoil also produces higher maximum lift coefficient
and higher stall angle compared to rigid airfoil.