CFD Analysis of Controlling the Airflow over Airfoils using Dimples: Technical Note

Abstract

The main objective of this work is to improve the aerodynamic characteristics and manoeuvrability of the aircraft. The reduction in drag and stall phenomena will automatically enhance the aerodynamic characteristics. This project is an effort to enhance the aerodynamic characteristics of airfoil by introducing surface modifications in the form of dimples. The shape of the dimples we selected is circular shaped dimple. We placed 12 dimples in both the surfaces in appropriate places so that they could delay the boundary layer formation. The dimple generally creates turbulence by creating vortices which in turn delays the boundary layer formation. With the effects of dimple, pressure drag gets reduced and also the acoustic effects get reduced. This project includes the computational analysis of dimple effect on aircraft wing using NACA 0018 symmetric airfoil with uniform cross section throughout the length of airfoil. Subsonic flows are considered for this analysis. The analyses were done under the inlet velocities of 30m/s and 60m/s at different angle of attack such as 0, 5, 10 and 15 degrees. The models were designed using CATIA V5 and simulated using ANSYS CFX software.