Aerodynamic characteristics of NACA 4412 airfoil section with flap in extreme ground effect

Abstract

Wing-in-Ground vehicles and aerodynamically assisted boats take advantage of increased lift and reduced drag of wing sections in the ground proximity. At relatively low speeds or heavy payloads of these craft, a flap at the wing trailing-edge can be applied to boost the aerodynamic lift. The influence of a flap on the two-dimensional NACA 4412 airfoil in viscous ground-effect flow is numerically investigated in this study. The computational method consists of a steady-state, incompressible, finite volume method utilizing the Spalart-Allmaras turbulence model. Grid generation and solution of the Navier-Stokes equations are completed using computer program Fluent. The code is validated against published experimental and numerical results of unbounded flow with a flap, as well as ground-effect motion without a flap. Aerodynamic forces are calculated, and the effects of angle of attack, Reynolds number, ground height, and flap deflection are presented for a split and plain flap. Changes in the flow introduced with the flap addition are also discussed. Overall, the use of a flap on wings with small attack angles is found to be beneficial for small flap deflections up to 5% of the chord, where the contribution of lift augmentation exceeds the drag increase, yielding an augmented lift-to-drag ratio.