SURNAME and NAME:

AERODINAMICA: YEAR 2019-2020

Assignment for the evaluation of subject 6:

Compressible flow around airfoils

Hand-in date: 16th June through open task on poliformat.

This is a group assignment and it can be done in teams of 3 to 5 students. A single

report per group should be written and handed-in in pdf format.

NOTE: To carry out this work you have chosen to use ANSYS Fluent.
To simplify things, most of the set-up is already provided. A recorded tutorial leads you
through the steps that have been pre-prepared and the ones you need to do, as
explained in the points below.

INTRODUCTION:
This assignment is to evaluate subject 6. Its objective is to analyse the compressible
subsonic and transonic flow about a NACA4415 of chord 1 m.

STEP 0: Tutorial
Listen to the recording with the explanations of the set-up made for these calculations
(link for English:https://web.microsoftstream.com/video/6bd10330-e21d-446b-a429-
2f0c7430a670 ; link for Spanish: https://web.microsoftstream.com/video/5fbedeb5-0b7c-
464d-bdda-216101b76441 ). It will help you for the other calculations.

1. Open and run FLUENT

You can use any version of Fluent you may have installed.
1. Read case file named NACA4415-base-alpha0.cas. When it finishes reading the
case set-up, the mesh will appear. Otherwise, you may go to Display mesh.
In section SETUP
2. Go to Boundary conditions, then double-click on Pressure-far-field and change
the Mach number to the value required (see below, section 3).
3. If you must change the angle of attack, change also
- the value of X-component of Flow direction to the value of cosα and
- the value of Y-component of Flow direction to the value of sinα
4. Go to Reference values and update them by choosing the option ‘compute from:
pressure-far-field’. Check that the velocity value has been updated to the new
value.
In section SOLUTION
5. If you have changed the angle of attack in point 3, then do not forget to update
the aerodynamic forces directions:
go to Report definitions and
- double click on cl-1: change in the window the Force vector::
o X=value of (-sinα); Y=value of (cosα)

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SURNAME and NAME:
AERODINAMICA: YEAR 2019-2020

- double click on cd-1 and change in the window the Force vector::
o X=value of (cosα); Y=value of (sinα)

6. Go to Initialize and click on ‘Standard initialization’ and choose the option

compute from ‘pressure-far-field’ and do not forget to press the button ‘initialize’
in the window.
7. Go to Run calculation and set the number of iterations. By default, it is set to
2000 iterations, but convergence is reached in most cases in less than a 1000
iterations.
8. Click on calculate. You can monitor the convergence looking at the residuals
graph, as well as the convergence graphs of cl, cd and cm,c/4.
Points 1 to 8 must be repeated for each case.

IMPORTANT!
Always remember to save the case set-up (.cas file) and once the calculation has
finished, the ‘case and data’ files (.dat file). Give to each .cas and .dat file a name that
makes sense to you.

2. Post-processing of the solutions

For the post-processing and analysis of the solutions you need to do the following:
 At the end of each converged solution, write down the values of the lift coefficient
cl, drag coefficient cd and moment coefficient with respect to the ¼ chord cm,c/4 .
You can click in Solution: on Report definitions, and then on each of the
coefficients and in the window, ‘compute’ will give you the values.
 Plot the pressure coefficient Cp distribution.
 Make a graphic of the Mach contours. It is useful and important to ensure that all
images of the contours are the same size approximately, that is show the same
zoom approximation for all calculated cases.

3. Calculations to perform
1. Calculate the turbulent flow cases at the subsonic Mach numbers and incidence
angles indicated in the table below.
2. When changing the angle of attack, do not forget to change the forces directions
in the ‘Reports Definitions’.
3. Fill in the table

α (deg) Mach M ∞ cl cd cm,c/4

0 0.5
0 0.63
0 0.7
0 0.75
5 0.63

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SURNAME and NAME:
AERODINAMICA: YEAR 2019-2020

4. Analysis of the solutions

1. Plot the values of the lift coefficient cl versus Mach number for the α=0o cases and
comment the results.
2. Determine graphically on figure 2 below the value of the critical Mach number at
α=0o as done in the class exercises, using figure 1 below and Prandtl-Glauert’s
compressibility correction.
3. Plot the values of the calculated drag coefficient c d versus Mach number for the
α=0o cases and comment the results. Identify the critical Mach number on the
curve. Deduce the approximate value of the drag-divergence Mach number.
4. For all calculated cases, analyse the pressure coefficient Cp distribution and
comment what you can read on them. Relate whatever observations you make to
the Mach number contours.
5. Is the value of the graphically estimated critical Mach number close enough to the
CFD calculated critical Mach number? How do you identify the critical Mach
number in the CFD calculations? Use the analysis of point 4 to answer this
question.

Critical thinking (counts also for the assignment mark)

Note: the critical thinking has to be written by the group and handed-in with the
assignment report (one per work group).

6. Analyse the solution for M ∞=0,63 at incidence α=5o. Is it still the critical Mach
number when the airfoil flies at incidence α=5o?
7. Does the critical Mach number increase or decrease when incidence increases?
Reason your answer.
8. Use the analysis of point 4 to explain why the drag coefficient increases
significantly for the drag-divergence Mach number.

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SURNAME and NAME:
AERODINAMICA: YEAR 2019-2020

o
Figure 1. Distribution of pressure coefficient on NACA4415 airfoil at M=0.2 and α=0

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SURNAME and NAME:
AERODINAMICA: YEAR 2019-2020

Cpcr = f(Mcr)

Figure 2. Graphic determination of Mcr