Passive Deformation of Airfoil Suction Surface to Match the Effects of Increasing Airfoil Thickness on a Double Element Wing in Ground Effect

Abstract

English:

An investigation has been conducted to compare the effects of airfoil suction surface passive deformation and increase of airfoil thickness in ground effect. Single airfoil configuration exhibits high sensitivity to the increase of Adverse Pressure Gradient (APG) due to ground effect, being necessary the use of double element wing to achieve required pressure distribution. A Computational Fluid Dynamic (CFD) model is developed based on data from literature which is later used for CFD analysis of created geometries. 2D and 3D CFD analysis show that passive deformation of suction surface match the effects of increasing airfoil thickness within a 1% margin. While 2D analysis exhibit an improvement in downforce and efficiency increasing airfoil thickness, 3D analysis does not. 3D analysis also shows a change in tendency for downforce obtaining higher values than baseline from a thickness increase of 8% maximum thickness / chord (t/c). A structural concept was successfully modelled achieving a deformation close to target, providing 4.6% less downforce and 1% less efficiency.