B.

E Degree End Semester

Practical Examination
16AE8901 – Project Work Viva Voce
DEPARTMENT OF AERONAUTICAL ENGINEERING
Analysis of effect of surface roughness on the upper side
of the aerofoil

Team Members :
Guide Name :
MUTHURAMALINGAM M 17101059 MR V.T.GOPINATHAN
PRAVITHA A 17101074 (AP/AERO)
SIVAGURUNATHAN G 17101086
Date: 26/03/2021
SRIHARI M 17101089 1
 ABSTRACT
• The aerodynamic performance of the airfoil is significantly affected by the surface roughness at low
subsonic speed.
• Qualitative analysis has been conducted using Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) with analysis to
investigate the impact of surface roughness on the profile of NACA 0012 symmetrical airfoil at the
Reynolds number (Re) of 5x10­5.
• The upper side was divided into three sections For the roughness locations covering about 25%, 50%,
75% chord of the suction surface from the leading edge and the roughness magnitude of (Ra) 157
micrometer were selected.
• The induced surface roughness delays the flow separation and the increases the stall angle.
• The velocity streamline pattern and the turbulence kinetic energy plots are taken at various angle of
attack for roughness induced at different surface on the camber at the velocity of 50m/s.
• It is compared to the smooth profile and the effect of surface roughness at various surface on the
profile are discussed.

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 PROBLEM IDENTIFICATION
• The aerodynamic behaviour of aerofoil is affected seriously by the distributed roughness on the
surface.
• If the roughness is concentrated near the leading edge, the laminar to turbulence transition will
happen earlier than on a smooth blade.
• In order to maximize aerodynamic performance, a blade must operate at the angle that gives
maximum lift to drag.
• The skin friction on rough surface has a larger increase compare with the smooth surface which
leads to a higher drag than the smooth surface.
• By varying the surface roughness on different section on the upstream camber, there is a generation
of vortices at low Reynolds number (Re)
• Due to the turbulence kinetic energy of the flow in rough surface, there is reenergizing of the flow.
This makes flow separation delay and increases the stall angle.

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 INTRODUCTION
• An airfoil -shaped body which moves through a fluid produces an aerodynamic force.
• The drag force is directly influenced by the body surface roughness and lift is affected in turn.
• In general, for flying it is desirable to reduce all drag (parasite and induced) to a minimum.
• Aircraft aerodynamic performance is highly dependents on drag performance, which is majorly
affected by surface profile.
• Hence to enhance plane efficiency it became necessary to analyze the effect of various
parameters that enhances drag production.
• Surface roughness is one of the important parameters that affect fluid flow behavior over the
wing.

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 JUSTIFICATION FOR CARRYING OUT
THE PROJECT

• There are various devices protruded outside the airfoil are used for increasing the aerodynamic
efficiency.
• By creating vortices at high angle of attack there is energizing of flow happens.
• The application of surface roughness over upper side of the aerofoil is one of the alter way to delay
the stall effect and flow separation.
• The effect of surface roughness at various angle of attack at different section at the Reynolds number

of 5x105 are studied.

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 LITERATURE SURVEY

S.NO TITLE OF THE PAPER NAME OF THE JOURNAL INFERENCES

1 A Research on Wind Tunnel on Rohith Indulekha Janardhanan, • Drag reduction using

Drag Reduction in Aircraft Ajith Raj Rajendran, Dev surface roughness
Wing by Inducing Surface Anand ( 2019)
Roughness.

2 Experimental Investigation of Monalisa Mallick • Flow over different

flow Past A Rough Surfaced ,A.Kumar(2014) roughness values .
Cylinder.

3 Aerodynamic Performance T.Hussain , D.Kumar, M.Abro • Concept of Surface

Analysis of Rough Rectangular (2017) Roughness over aerofoil.
Aircraft Wing for Subsonic
Flow.

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S.N TITLE OF THE PAPER NAME OF THE JOURNAL INFERENCES
O

4 Effect of surface Roughness Mingyany WANG,Chengwu • Roughness Parameters

Aerodynamic Performance of a YANG
high Subsonic compressor (2020).
airfoil at low Reynolds number.

5 CFD Simulation of Smooth Li,Yunjian(2018) • Numerical parameters

and Rough NACA 0012 airfoils
at low Reynolds Number

6 Effects of Bio inspired Surface Khurshid Malik, Mohammed • Concept of Surface

Roughness on a Swept Back Aldheeb(2019) Roughness over aerofoil
Tapered NACA 4412 Wing using bio mimics.

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S.No TITLE OF THE PAPER NAME OF THE INFERENCES
JOURNAL

7 Effects of surface roughness on Jordan nielson , Deezy loving Experimental results on

aerodynamics Characteristics and surface roughness
losses of Symmetric Airfoil
NACA0012

8 Aerodynamic performance of Narasimhan suseendran, Effect of airflow on

Rear Roughness aerofoils.
9 Effects of surface roughness on
the aerodynamic performance of
a high subsonic compressor
airfoil at low Reynolds number.
Nadaraja Pillai various place of
roughness.
Mingyang Wand, Chengwu Elimination of laminar
yang separation bubble after the
increase in roughness

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 METHODOLOGY

CAD MODELLING

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Geometry and Domain Details
• NACA 0012 Aerofoil
• Chord length = 150mm
• 3 section at upper surface for roughness
parameters
• C Domain
• Domain length
• 10C height from the airfoil
• 20C downstream length from the trailing
edge
• 10C upstream length from the leading edge

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 MESH 2D (Unstructured)

• Unstructured mesh
• Grid independence study
• Number of elements = 386231
• Inflation over airfoil
• y+ = 1
• First layer thickness = 0.006554 m
• Number of layers = 15

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Boundary Conditions
• Reynolds Number = 5.08*105
• Velocity = 50m/s
• Model = Pressure based
• Flow type = Incompressible flow
• Solver = SST k- ω
• Roughness height = 1.8*10-6m (120 grit)
• Roughness Constant Cs= 0.5

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 Results And Discussion

• Comparison of velocity streamline and turbulent kinetic

energy over airfoil at various Angle of Attack
(5deg,10deg,15deg)
• Without Roughness value
• Roughness induced on individual section

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Velocity Streamlines at 90 AoA:

Fig: Profile without roughness Fig: At roughness at upper surface 1

Fig: At roughness at upper surface 2 Fig: At roughness at upper surface 3

Roughness at 1 shows pre formation of wake region

due to initial disturbance in suction surface.
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2 Turbulence kinetic energy at 90 AoA:

Fig: Profile without roughness Fig: At roughness at upper surface 1

Fig: At roughness at upper surface 2 Fig: At roughness at upper surface 3

Increase in turbulent kinetic energy followed to the
trailing edge
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 1 Velocity Streamlines at 120 AoA:

Fig: Profile without roughness Fig: At roughness at upper surface 1

Fig: At roughness at upper surface 2 Fig: At roughness at upper surface 3

Roughness at 1 shows pre stall due to initial disturbance in suction

surface. Where other 2 surface shows no such effect 16
Turbulence kinetic energy at 120 AoA:

Fig: Profile without roughness Fig: At roughness at upper surface 1

Fig: At roughness at upper surface 2 Fig: At roughness at upper surface 3

At surface 2 & 3 there is attached flow. 1 shows

detachment of flow
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 Velocity Streamlines at 150 AoA:

Fig: Profile without roughness Fig: At roughness at upper surface 1

Fig: At roughness at upper surface 2 Fig: At roughness at upper surface 3

Surface 2 roughness leads to the delayed flow separation or post stall where
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surface3 and 2 shows lesser effect than surface 1
Turbulence kinetic energy at 150 AoA:

Fig: Profile without roughness Fig: At roughness at upper surface 1

Fig: At roughness at upper surface 2 Fig: At roughness at upper surface 3

From the above surface 2 has much effect. 19
 CONCLUSION
 
• The aerodynamic characteristics had been held by the comparison of
smooth aerofoil and modified aerofoil.
• It was found that the roughness induced in the upper surface 2 shows the
more aerodynamic performance than other two surfaces.
• The implementation of surface roughness in low subsonic flow is
beneficial at the higher angle of attack and near stall angle, it makes
negative effect at lower angle of attack.
• Through the effect of favorable pressure gradient, the upstream flow is
attached over the upper surface of airfoil and because of adverse pressure
gradient, the downstream flow is detached.

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• The various sections of surface roughness causing swirling vortices that
roll up and over the aerofoil which actually enhance lift properties.
• The experimental validation shows the velocity streamline pattern and
turbulent kinetic energy on suction and pressure side of the selected
airfoils to determine the effective aerodynamic characteristics.
• Through the effect of favorable velocity streamline, the upstream flow is
attached over the upper surface of airfoil and because of adverse
pressure gradient, the downstream flow is detached upper surface of
airfoil.
• As the roughness surface were positioned on the suction side for the
baseline and modified airfoils, the turbulent kinetic energy and the
velocity streamline pattern distribution is evaluated.

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 REFERENCES
1. Kerho. M and Bragg ., “ Airfoil Boundary layer Development and transition
with leading edge roughness”, AIAA Journal
2. Bragg, Michael, “Aircraft aerodynamic effects due to large droplet ice
accretions,” AIAA Meeting Papers on Disc
3. Potapczuk, Mark, “Numerical Analysis of an NACA 0012 Airfoil with
Leading edge Ice accretions,” Journal of Aircraft
4. Hood, M. J., The effect of surface irregularities on wing drag
5. Hood, M. J., Surface roughness and wing drag; An American opinion upon a
problem becoming of ever increasing importance.
6. Wilcox, D. C., Turbulence modelling for CFD.
7. Chen, Z., A. Przekwas, (2010). A coupled pressure-based computational
method for incompressible/compressible flows. Journal of Computational
Physics, 229(24): 9150-9165.
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THANK YOU

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