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Projecte llegit

Títol: Aerodynamic performance of airfoils with non-smooth surfaces

Estudiants que han llegit aquest projecte:

Director/a: MELLIBOVSKY ELSTEIN, FERNANDO PABLO

Departament: FIS

Títol: Aerodynamic performance of airfoils with non-smooth surfaces

Data inici oferta: 01-02-2026     Data finalització oferta: 01-10-2026


Estudis d'assignació del projecte:
    GR ENG SIST AEROESP
Tipus: Individual
 
Lloc de realització: EETAC
 
Paraules clau:
NACA 2412, Airfoil, Dimple, CFD, Separation, ANSYS Fluent, Passive Flow Control, Boundary Layer
 
Descripció del contingut i pla d'activitats:
 
Overview (resum en anglès):
Passive flow control aims to improve aerodynamic performance through surface modifications without requiring external energy. In this thesis, the aerodynamic behaviour of a three dimensional NACA 2412 airfoil at an angle of attack of 15º is investigated using Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulations in ANSYS Fluent. The objective is to evaluate whether dimple modifications on the upper surface can improve aerodynamic performance by delaying boundary layer separation.

A baseline airfoil configuration is first analysed and used as a reference case. Several dimple configurations are then evaluated by varying both their chordwise location and geometric distribution. A mesh independence study is performed, and the same numerical setup is maintained for all simulations to ensure a consistent comparison between cases.

The results indicate that the dimples modify the local flow field and generate recirculation regions inside the cavities, but these effects do not translate into a significant overall aerodynamic improvement compared with the baseline airfoil. The best aerodynamic performance is obtained for the Single Dimple configuration located at 60% of the chord, which produces a slightly higher lift coefficient than the reference case. In contrast, the Double Dimple configuration at 60% of the chord exhibits the lowest aerodynamic efficiency among the configurations considered. From the perspective of boundary layer separation, the most favourable result is achieved by the Trefoil configuration at 70% of the chord, which delays the separation point from 82% of the chord in the baseline case to 86.7% of the chord. However, this delay does not lead to a significant increase in lift or aerodynamic efficiency.

Overall, the studied dimple geometries do not provide sufficiently large performance improvement to justify their selection as an effective passive flow control solution under the simulated conditions. Nevertheless, the results suggest that further investigations using finer mesh resolutions around the dimples may be worthwhile.

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