Aerofoil selection for ground effect model plane

Selection criteria:

- Laminar v Turbulent
- CL at stall and AoA at stall
- CL and CD at cruise
- CM at cruise and stall
- Spar thickness

Laminar aerofoils have less drag at cruise, but stall rapidly. Whereas turbulent aerofoils have a
smoother CL at stall and past stall, higher AOA at stall but more drag at cruise.

AOA of stall should be significantly higher than cruise angle. Due to it being a ground effect vehicle
the aerofoil should have good performance at low AOA.

CM should be negative at stall, if positive it can cause it to pitch up at stall making it worse.

Thicker aerofoils are also slightly heavier however compensations to the spar thickness can be made.

Using historical data:

A study by Zubin Zaheer ‘CFD analysis of the performance of different airfoils in ground effect’:

The aerofoils used were the NACA 0012, NACA 4412 and NACA 6412.

CFD, chord set was 1m and generated for AOA of 0,4 and 8 degrees at 30 m/s

h/c is the height above ground / chord length

Observations:

NACA 0012, a symmetrical aerofoil at 0° has a suction effect at all heights above the ground.
NACA 6412, has the highest CL/CD value, at 4° 0.2 h/c. It also does generate lift at 0° unlike NACA
0012.

NACA 4412 is similar to NACA 6412 however with lower CL/CD value across all AOA’s and h/c’s.

From this data NACA 6412 is best suited for wing-in-ground aircraft due to it having the best lift
generating surface in ground effect conditions.

A study by Nikhil Pillai ‘Investigation on airfoil operating in ground effect region’:

A comparison of DHMTU aerofoil specifically designed for WIG aircraft with other aerofoils.

CFD analysis at 6°, h/c=20%, at 30m/s

In this study it was concluded that the DHMTU aerofoil had the best lift performance in the ground
effect zone, importantly at low AOA.

From these two studies I will select the DHMTU aerofoil and the NACA 6412 for comparison.
From this it is shown that both maintain negative Cm values throughout. However, NACA 6412 has
higher Cl values across the AOA, and better aerodynamic efficiency across all AOA’s too. Therefore
from this analysis the best aerofoil suited for WIG aircraft is the NACA 6412.