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Projecte llegit

Títol: Aerodynamic performances analysis of modified wing structures

Estudiants que han llegit aquest projecte:

Director/a: ALTMEYER, SEBASTIÁN ANDREAS

Departament: FIS

Títol: Aerodynamic performances analysis of modified wing structures

Data inici oferta: 27-12-2025     Data finalització oferta: 27-07-2026


Estudis d'assignació del projecte:
    GR ENG SIS TELECOMUN
    GR ENG SIST AEROESP
    GR ENG TELEMÀTICA
Tipus: Individual
 
Lloc de realització: EETAC
 
Paraules clau:
Passive flow control, Modified wing structure, Aerodynamic efficiency, CFD
 
Descripció del contingut i pla d'activitats:
This project presents a theoretical and computational study of the aerodynamic performance for different airfoils configurations with geometric changes. Different and modified wing setups, e.g. the consideration of open gaps as a passive flow control method will be analysed. The main objective is to analyse the effect of such gaps according to their position on the airfoil chord, with greater emphasis on lift enhancement and drag reduction associated with delayed flow separation, as this directly affects boundary layer instabilities. First, a basic airfoil will be created and used as a reference case. Then, different open-gaps configurations will be analysed using CFD simulations in ANSYS Fluent. The results will focus on lift, drag, pressure, velocity, and flow separation. In addition to the first configuration, a second analysis will be carried out considering other passive flow control geometries based in the nature. These configurations will be compared with the reference and open-gap cases to assess their aerodynamic performance.
The airfoil design will be created with SolidWorks, where the airflow will be studied in ANSYS Fluent, analyzing components such as flow separation, velocity and pressure fields, and aerodynamic coefficients such as lift and drag.

The expected result is a quantitative validation of the effectiveness of passive flow control via gaps, contributing to the indentification of optimal configurations and the possible improvement of aerodynamic performance.
 
Overview (resum en anglès):
This project analyses the aerodynamic performance of a modified NACA 2412 airfoil using computational fluid dynamics. The objective is to study whether a passive flow-control modification, based on an internal hole through the airfoil, can improve the aerodynamic behaviour compared with the original geometry. The effect of the modification is evaluated through the lift coefficient, drag coefficient and aerodynamic efficiency.
The geometries are created in SolidWorks and simulated in ANSYS Fluent using a two-dimensional RANS approach with the k-omega SST turbulence model. Before analysing the modified cases, a mesh independence study is carried out using different mesh refinements to reduce the influence of discretisation on the numerical results. The baseline NACA2412 airfoil is then compared with published experimental data to check that the CFD setup provides a reasonable reference for the study.
After the baseline analysis, a progressive parametric study is performed. First, different hole diameters are tested. Then, using the best diameter, several inclination angles are analysed. After that, the best inclination is used to study different positions along the chord. Once these parameters are selected, the most relevant configurations are tested at different angles of attack, including 5, 10, 12 and 14 degrees. Finally, the best hole configurations are compared with adapted gapped and stepped airfoil cases from previous work.
The results show that the 5 mm hole provides the best performance among the diameters studied. The optimum inclination and position depend on the angle of attack, meaning that one fixed geometry is not optimal for all flow conditions. The optimized hole configurations improve aerodynamic efficiency at 0, 5, 10 and 12 degrees compared with the baseline, while the baseline is better at 14 degrees.
These results indicate that the proposed hole-based modification can improve aerodynamic efficiency under specific angles of attack. Future work should investigate three-dimensional configurations that could enable the hole-based mechanism to remain effective over a bigger range of angles of attack.

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