Influence of Camber Ratio and Thickness Ratio on the Airfoil Performance

Abstract

The aerodynamic performance of airfoil is certainly measured by the lift to drag ratio of that profile. In this paper, different NACA 4-digit airfoils are considered to perform the comparative analysis. The effects of camber ratio and thickness ratio on the aerodynamic coefficients are discussed. QBlade is used to calculate the lift coefficient and lift to drag ratio of each profile. Low Reynolds number (Re) of 3.6 × 105 is used for the present analysis. The angle of attack is varied from 0 to 20° to observe its influence on the aerodynamic performances. It has been seen that the lift coefficient increases with the increase in camber ratio of airfoil which implies more gain in lift force. Simultaneously, drag force also increases with increase in camber ratio. Therefore, lift to drag ratio has been calculated at different angle of attack for various cambered airfoil. Similarly, influence of thickness ratio is also studied, and it is observed that airfoil with lower thickness ratio produces higher lift to drag ratio at lower angle of attack (α ≤ 8°). Whereas, airfoil with higher thickness ratio produces maximum lift to drag ratio at higher angle of attack.