04/11/2021 15:49 fluid mechanics - Do all airfoils have a lift curve slope of $2\pi$?

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Do all airfoils have a lift curve slope of 2π ?

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I know that according to the thin airfoil theory all airfoils (symmetric or not) have lift curve
slope of 2π. I also know that finite wings should have less inclined lift curve because of the
6 downwash. Then I saw this formula used for finite elliptic wings which is fine.

dCL a0
= a =
dα 1 + a0 /πAR

The problem is a0 is not 2π in examples that above formula is used. I am thinking that since
non of the downwash effects are present for airfoils (infinite wings) a0 should always be 2π.
What am I missing? Is it because not all airfoils are thin?

fluid-mechanics aerospace-engineering aircraft-design aerodynamics

Share Improve this question edited Jan 3 '17 at 12:16 asked Jan 2 '17 at 23:16
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In general, most airfoils only approximately display the 2π lift slope as predicted by thin airfoil
theory. That is because airfoils are not actually infinitely thin in practice, and will deviate from
6 thin airfoil theory by a small amount. a0 is left in the above equation so one can predict the
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04/11/2021 15:49 fluid mechanics - Do all airfoils have a lift curve slope of $2\pi$? - Engineering Stack Exchange

elliptical finite wing lift slope (effects of aspect ratio), a , given the best predicted/measured
infinite wing lift slope a0 . The thin airfoil theory will predict a finite wing lift slope of 2π rad−1
or 0.1097 deg−1 . It is common to measure airfoil lift slopes near the 0.1097 deg−1 (2π) for the
NACA 4 and 5 series airfoils with thickness ratios below 10%. However, once you go above this
thickness, the measured lift slope begins approaching 0.1 deg−1 or 5.73 rad−1 for smooth
airfoils with thickness ratios near the upper limit of 24%. Similarly, if roughness effects are
taken into consideration, the measured lift slope is even lower and reaches 0.1 deg−1 at only a
thickness ratio of 14% and can reach as low as 0.085 deg−1 or 4.87 rad−1 near thickness ratios
of 24%. This is all detailed in the plot below from the Theory of Wing Sections (excellent
reference text).

Oddly enough, for the smooth NACA 63-series and 64-series, the lift slope will actually
increase with increasing thickness ratios. However, the roughness effects keeps the measured
lift slope around 0.11 for thickness ratios up to 24%. This is detailed in the following 2 plots.

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04/11/2021 15:49 fluid mechanics - Do all airfoils have a lift curve slope of $2\pi$? - Engineering Stack Exchange

In summary, the a0 is left as a variable for the designer to be predicted or measured using
vortex panel methods or experimental wind tunnel testing, to which the designer can use the
above equation to estimate the effects of aspect ratio on the elliptical finite wing lift slope, a ,
given the predicted/measured a0 .

Share Improve this answer Follow answered Jan 3 '17 at 2:43

TRF
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