Leading Edge - Trailing Edge
Airfoil Interactions
AIAA Paper 95-0436, 33rd AIAA Aerospace Sciences Meeting and Exhibit,
Jan. 10, 1995, Reno, NV
W.H. Mason
Abstract
Computational aerodynamics predictions of airfoil drag and maximum lift
continue to be a challenge to aerodynamicists, even using large computer
programs. The reliable calculation of the drag break and maximum lift, including
the effects of Reynolds number, are simply not developed to the stage where they
can be used routinely in aerodynamic design. This is especially troubling in the
case of multidisciplinary design optimization, where thousands of calculations
are made, accurate sensitivities to geometry changes are required, and the
results are not clearly visible during the process. This paper provides a survey
of various airfoil results and of parametric studies of boundary layer solutions
that illustrate the strong connection between boundary layer development at the
trailing edge and the details of the viscous flow near the leading edge for many
critical cases. With the exception of work by Cebeci and co-workers, this
problem has largely been ignored in computational research, although it is well
known by the experimental aerodynamics community.
For the postscript form of the complete paper
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mason@aoe.vt.edu