Chapter IV.

Handout #3
Thin Airfoil Theory- Terminology and Definitions

An airfoil is defined by
line. The straight line that
ends of the mean camber
length of the chord line is
symbol c.To the mean
distribution is added in a
line to produce the final
thickness are added above the camber line, and below the camber line.

first drawing a mean camber

joins the leading and trailing
line is called the chord line. The
called chord, and given the
camber line, a thickness
direction normal to the camber
airfoil shape. Equal amounts of

An airfoil with no camber (i.e. a flat straight line for camber) is a symmetric airfoil.
The angle that a freestream makes with the chord line is called the angle of attack.
Forces along the x- and y- axes: The forces and moments acting on an airfoil may be computed as follows.
y

Let Y be the pressure force per unit span (i.e. per unit distance normal to the plane of the paper) along the
y- axis. This force may be computed as:

pdx pdx p

Lower
Surface

upper

plower dx

Upper
Surface

If we subtract off a constant value p from the upper and lower side pressure values, then the force will not
change. Thus,

Y pupper p plower p dx

We can non-dimensionalize the above dimensional form by dividing the pressure by the dynamic pressure,
and the distances by the chord c. Then,

Y pup er p plower p x x
CY
d C C d
1 2 1 2 c p,up er p,lower c
Vc V
2 2

We can likewise find the component of force acting along the x- axis. This force and its non-dimensional
form are given below:

dY

dx

X pupper
CX

upper

dY

dx

dx p lower

dY
C p ,upper

1
dx
2

V c
2
X

dx
lower

dY

dx

C p ,lower
upper

d
lower

x
c

Lift and Drag: The X and Y- forces act along the x- and y- axes, respectively. Lift is defined as the
component of pressure force that is normal to the freestream direction, and drag is defined as the
component of pressure force along the freestream direction. If the airfoil was initially located so that the
chord line is along the x- axis, then the angle between the freestream direction and the x- axis is the angle
of attack .
y, Y
L

x,X

Freestream
Direction

Lift and drag are related to the X- and Y- forces as follows:

L Y cos X sin
D X cos Y sin
C l CY cos C X sin
C d C X cos CY sin
The quantities Cl and Cd are called the lift, and drag coefficients, respectively. By convention, the lower case
subscripts are used in 2-D flows, while upper case subscripts are used to denote lift and drag coefficients of
three-dimensional configurations such as wings.
Pitching Moment: We can also define the pitching moment about any point on the chord line. Nose up
moment is considered positive. About a general point on the x- axis whose co-ordinates are given by (a,0),
the pitching moment per unit span is given in dimensional form by:

M plower pupper ( x a )dx

The non-dimensional form is given by:

C m C p ,lower C p ,upper

x a x
d
c c c

While the pitching moment can be defined about any point in space, it is customary to compute the pitching
moment M and the pitching moment coefficient Cm about the quarter chord, i.e. a location 25%c
downstream of the leading edge.
Center of Pressure: the center of pressure is defined as the point about which the pitching moment is zero.
As the flow conditions change (example, angle of attack changes), the center of pressure will change.
Aerodynamic Center: The aerodynamic pressure is defined as the point where the pitching moment (or the
pitching moment coefficient) is independent of . That is, if we computed the pitching moment about the
aerodynamic center,

M C m

The thin airfoil theory to be covered will yield the following results:

C l 2 0
C l
2

C d 0 (d' Alembert's Paradox)

C m
0 about the quarter - chord point.

The quantity 0 is called the angle of zero lift, since lift is zero at =0. In real flows, Cl, Cd and Cm will
differ from our theory (hopefully, only slightly) due to viscous effects.
As may be expected, symmetric airfoils will have zero lift at zero angle of attack. Thus, 0 is zero
for symmetric airfoils. For Cambered airfoils 0 can have positive or negative, depending on whether they
have a positive camber (camber line is convex, i.e. curved up) or negative camber (camber line is concave,
i.e. curved down).
Airfoil Geometry Naming Conventions: The following is an excerpt
from: the web site: http://www.desktopaero.com/appliedaero/appliedaero.html
To respect the copyright , and to acknowledge the considerable effort the author of the web site has made
in preparing the material, this excerpt is printed in italics.
Airfoil geometry can be characterized by the coordinates of the upper and lower surface. It is often
summarized by a few parameters such as: maximum thickness, maximum camber, position of max
thickness, position of max camber, and nose radius. One can generate a reasonable airfoil section given
these parameters. This was done by Eastman Jacobs in the early 1930's to create a family of airfoils known
as the NACA Sections.
Example of a NACA 4-Digit Series: Consider the airfoil NACA 4412. The first digit gives maximum camber
in % of chord, the second digit gives in tenth of a chord where the maximum camber occurs, and the last
two digits give the maximum thickness in %chord.
4

4
max camber
in % chord

12
position
of max camber
in 1/10 of c

max thickness
in % of chord

After the 4-digit sections came the 5-digit sections such as the famous NACA 23012. These sections had the
same thickness distribution, but used a camber line with more curvature near the nose. A cubic was faired
into a straight line for the 5-digit sections.
NACA 5-Digit Series:
2
30
12
approx max
position
max thickness
camber
of max camber
in % of chord
divided by 1/50 of c
The 6-series of NACA airfoils departed from this simply-defined family. These sections were generated
from a more or less prescribed pressure distribution and were meant to achieve some laminar flow.
NACA 6-Digit Series:
6
3,
2
2
12
Sixlocation
half width
ideal Cl
max
thickness
Series of min Cp
of low drag
in tenths in % of
chord
in 1/10 chord bucket in 1/10 of Cl
After the six-series sections, airfoil design became much more specialized for the particular application.
Airfoils with good transonic performance, good maximum lift capability, very thick sections, very low drag
sections are now designed for each use. Often a wing design begins with the definition of several airfoil
sections and then the entire geometry is modified based on its 3-dimensional characteristics.