Measurement of Pressure and narrow, and it has a better lift to

Distribution and Lift for NACA 4415 drag ratio than short stubby wing

Airfoil with the same lifting area. Following

to the first invention to the first wind

Objective tunnel, there are several wind tunnel

The purpose of the experiment is to testing carried out for instance,

investigate the pressure distribution between 1909 and 1912 Gustave Eiffel

along the surface of NACA 4415 airfoil had run about 4000 airfoil testing

and compute the coefficient of lift at using his first open wind tunnel,

certain angle of attack. powered by 50KW electric motor.

Lewis Research Center build the

Introduction worlds largest refrigerated wind

The history of airfoil design was tunnel in 1944 to examine protection

set back in 1799 when Sir George systems against hazardous ice

Cayley build whirling arm apparatus formation on wings and air inlet

to investigate rotating wing sections of rotors.

various forms in the stairwells. These

experiments led him to develop Airfoil has shape which is more

efficient cambered airfoil. efficient than other shape to generate

lift. As free stream velocity move

Wind tunnel testing to stimulate through the airfoil, there will be

actual flight was set back in 1871 pressure difference between the upper

when Francis Wenham in England surface and bottom surface. The upper

built and used the first wind tunnel in surface has lower pressure than lower

history. The test was done to showed surface, thus producing lift force.

wing with high aspect ratio is long

 The lift on an airfoil is primarily Materials and Methods

the result of its angle of attack and

shape. When airfoil deflected the The wind tunnel that I used for testing

oncoming air, it produce force is a approximately 1m x 7m

opposite to the direction of deflection. atmospheric intake, continuous flow

These force is known as aerodynamic low speed wind tunnel located in

force and it is occurred at Aerolab UTM. The wind tunnel is

aerodynamic center of airfoil. comprised of a metal frame and

Aerodynamic center can be resolved plywood, powered using an axial fan

into lift and drag. Lift force acts driven by 15kW motor ( Teco Ed

perpendicular to the velocity flow Coupling, Type Edvs, Teco Elec. &

while drag acts parallel to the Mach.Co.Ltd, Taiwan R.O.C) with

direction of motion. The generation of variable speed. It has 2, where test

aerodynamic force produced pitching section (2) has dimension of 0.457m

moment, which makes the airfoil tend (width) x 0.457m (height) x 1.27m

to flips backwards when deflected to (long).

at positive degree angle of attack.

To gauge the pressure distribution

In wind tunnel testing using UTM along the chord, I used multi tube

Aerolab low speed wind tunnel , I pressure scanner (FlowKinetics LLC-

measured the pressure distribution FKPS 30DP), desktop computer, and

along the surface of NACA 4415 airfoil Aerolab UTM Wind Tunnel Testing

at different angle of attack, adjusted software (Data Acquisition Program in

manually from different free stream LabView).

velocity.
 test section. I took readings for the

To adjust airfoil at desired angle of pressure distribution when the at

attack, I used protactor. 0 m/s. To stimulate the actual flow on

the airfoil, I then let the wind tunnel

To obtain desired testing wind speed, motor to rotate the blade by turning

I used speed controller the speed controller until the

( Speeco-5200-S, Ed Motor Control anemometer display 10m/s . I set the

Panel Type, JVTMBSTER400YN) and airfoil to be at -5 degree angle of

anemometer (Dp-Calc Tsi). attack. After a few seconds, I took the

pressure readings using the software. I

To begin the experiment, I placed the set the airfoil to 8 different angle of

model airfoil of NACA 4415 into the attacks (-3, 0, 3, 6, 9, 12, 15,18) and let

test section of the suction type low the fluctuation flow (as displayed on

speed wind tunnel. I connected the 17 the software) to stabilize before took

labeled pressure sensor tubes along pressure readings for each

the airfoil in chordwise direction to degree.Consecutively, I adjusted the

the multi tube pressure scanner steps for wind tunnel speed at 15 m/s

pressure scanner. The pressure and 20 m/s.

scanner was then connected to the

desktop computer to run Aerolab The pressure distribution on the airfoil

UTM Wind Tunnel Testing software is expressed in term of total pressure :

to record the pressure distribution

along the airfoil for 10 seconds with P1 q1 P0

1000 frame per second. At first, I set 1

P1 V12 P0
2
the airfoil at 0 degree angle of attack
where P1 is static pressure, q1 is
using protactor attached outside of the
dynamic pressure and P0 is total
pressure, is air density (=1.225 increase gradually, higher than blue

kg/m3) and V1 is free stream velocity. line until at the end of the plot while

blue line continue to stay lower than

Result red line at almost straight line until

the end of plot.

Based on the graph of negative

coefficient of pressure ( C P ) versus At 3, 6, 9 and 12 degree angle of attack,

x/c for airspeed v = 10, 15 and 20 m/s, the blue line is lower than red line.

(see Figure 3, 4 and 5), the line graph Blue line at first decrease and increase

for upper surface (blue) and lower linearly until end of plot. The red line

surface (red) shows the same pattern linearly at first but increase gradually

for every degree angle of attacks (AoA) and stay higher than blue line at

(-5, -3, 0, 3, 6, 9, 12, 15 and 18). almost straight line until end of plot.

At -5 and -3 degree angle of attack, red At 15 degree angle of attack, blue line

line is lower than blue line, at first fell and red line decreased dramatically

sharply, intersect blue line at 0.3 x/c and red line increased slightly and

and increase gradually until end of remains lower than blue line. Blue line

plot. The blue line decrease linearly at increased linearly until end of plot.

first, intersect red line and stay lower

than red line at almost straight line At 18 degree angle of attack, red line

until the end of plot. remains lower than blue line. Red line

fall steeply at first but increased

At 0 angle of attack, red and blue line slightly until end of plot. Blue line

dramatically decrease at first, both decrease gradually but increased

intersect at 0.2 x/c. Then red line linearly until end of plot.
 higher pressure coefficient than upper

For graph lift coefficient (CL) versus surface, creating a gap between

angle of attack (AoA) (See Figure 6) surfaces. This gap becomes bigger

shows the same pattern for airspeed until 9 but start to becomes smaller at

v = 10 m/s (black line), 15 m/s (red line) 12 degree angle of attack.

and 20 m/s (blue line). From -5 to 9

degree angle of attack, all line Comparing these situation with graph

increased linearly. Blue line stay the of (CL) versus AoA for airspeed v = 10,

highest followed by red and black line. 15 and 20 m/s, the increase of gap size

It then decreased to 12 degree, fall shows an increase of lift coefficient

sharply to 15 degree, and decreased until it approach maximum value at 9

again at end of 18 degree angle of degree angle of attack. The decrease

attack. Black line remains the highest gap to 12 degree shows that airfoil

followed by red and blue at end of start to experience stall as lower

plot. surface has lower pressure

distribution than upper surface.

Discussion

From 15 to 18 degree angle of attack,

Based on the graph of ( C P ) versus airfoil is at the state of stalling as

x/c for airspeed v = 10, 15 and 20 m/s, shown by the shifting of red line

at -5 to -3 angle of attack, pressure with blue line and the gap show

coefficient of lower surface is lower increase in size. Lower surface has

than upper surface at airfoil leading lower pressure coefficient, showing

edge. As it approaches trailing edge that air velocity is higher on the lower

pressure coefficient from both surface surface than upper surface. Such

intersects and lower surface has difference in velocity and pressure

create downward force that pushes

airfoil to stall. This downward force is Reference

assumed to occurred when the airfoil

deflected passing it maximum angle 1) http://courses.ae.utexas.edu/ase463

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Reynolds Number. This is shown by 2015), Lift force)

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force generated, the maximum angle http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Airfoil

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on the airfoil shape as different shape WindTunnel/history.html

has different maximum angle of attack. 6) (Bob Allen, 2008) NASA Wind

I assumed that the airfoil shape is the Tunnels,

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nnel Cayley

Appendix

Figure 1 : Coordinate Diagram of NACA 4415 Airfoil plotted using XLFR5

v6.09.01 beta
Figure 2 : Schematic Diagram of UTM Aerolab Low Speed Wind Tunnel
Figure 3 : Graph of Negative Coefficient of Pressure (-CP) versus x/c for airspeed
v = 10 m/s
Figure 4 : Graph of Negative Coefficient of Pressure (-CP) versus x/c for airspeed
v = 15 m/s
Figure 5 : Graph of Negative Coefficient of Pressure (-CP) versus x/c for airspeed
v = 20 m/s
Figure 6 : Graph of Lift Coefficient (CL) versus angle of attack (AoA)
for airspeed v =10 m/s, 15 m/s and 20 m/s