OPTIMIZATION OF AIRFOIL AND THEIR

PERFORMANCE ANALYSIS

BY
SAI KIRAN
INTRODUCTION
• optimization of airfoil
Which involves improving the design of the airfoil in order to manipulate the lift and
drag coefficients according to the requirements. the aim of the optimization is to maximize
the lift and minimum the drag forces.
It is really difficult to optimize airfoils with this large number of co-ordinates . So
many different schemes of parameter sets are used to describe general airfoil such
as B-spline ,and PARSEC. The main goal of these parameterization schemes is to reduce
the number of needed parameters as few as possible while controlling the important
aerodynamics features effectively.
we have introduced the concept of genetic algorithm to optimize the aerodynamic
characteristics of a general airfoil for specific conditions . A MATLAB program has been
developed to implement PARSEC, genetic algorithm. This program has been tested for a
standard NACA 2411 airfoil and optimized to improve its coefficient of lift. Pressure
distribution and co-efficient of lift for airfoil geometries have been calculated using the
panel method. The optimized airfoil has improved co-efficient of lift compared to the
original one . The optimized airfoil is validated using wind tunnel data.
• OPTIMIZATION TECHNIQUES;
PANEL METHOD
 The panel method is used to solve the potential equations without being
computationally expensive .
 It provides reasonable accurate results .this two properties make the panel method
suitable for design optimization problems where the number of simulations is
incredibly large.
 The solution procedure for panel technique consists of discretizing the surface of the
airfoil into straight line segments or panels and assuming the conditions.
 The source strength is constant over each panel but has a different value for each
panel.
 The vortex strength is constant and equal over each panel. the compressibility and the
viscosity of air in the flow should be such that the flow leaving the trailing edge is
smooth.
 The curl of the velocity field is assumed to be zero.
 PARSEC
 PARSEC is a parameterization scheme which uses the unknown linear combinations of
base functions to express the shape of the airfoil.
 It uses twelve different geometrical characteristics of the airfoil geometry. the twelve
geometrical characteristics of the airfoil serve as the design variables for the PARSEC
approach.
 Twelve design variables are selected to have direct control over the shape of the airfoil.
the twelve variables are
 The twelve control variables are, upper leading edge radius(Rleu),lower leading edge
radius(Rlel),upper crest point (Yup),position of lower crest(Xlo),position of upper
crest(Xup),lower crest point (Ylo),upper crest curvature(YXXup),lower crest curvature
(YXXlo),trailing edge offset(Toff),trailing edge thickness(TTE),trailing edge direction
angle(Ate),trailing edge wedge angle (bTE),as shown in fig
 The results obtained after optimization of airfoil NACA2411 using PARSEC method.

 NACA 2411airfoil and the optimized airfoils for 5^0 AOA is indicated and the
comparison of pressure distribution over the surface of the original NACA2411 airfoil
and the optimized airfoil for 5^0 AOA.
Comparison of original and optimized airfoils
Of NACA 2411
 GENETIC ALGORITHM
 The basic idea associated with the genetic algorithm is to search for optimal solutions
using an analogy to the theory of evolution .
CONCLUSION;

EXPECTED RESULTS FOR OPTIMIZED AIRFOIL AFTER VALIDATION :

• The Cl values of optimized airfoil is expected to be more than the original airfoil.
• The Cd values of optimized airfoil is expected to be less than the original airfoil.
• Hence, with increase in Cl and decrease in Cd ,the optimized airfoils are expected to have
more aerodynamic efficiency (Cl / Cd ) on comparison with the original airfoil.
• Hence the optimized airfoils may achieve a better aerodynamic performance when used in
aircraft wings
• The optimized airfoil models are tested in wind tunnel to validate the aerodynamic lift,
drag coefficients results obtained from CFD simulatioins.
1) “Design Optimization and Analysis of NACA 0012 Airfoil using Computational
fluid dynamics and Genetic algorithm”. Ganesh Ram R K, Yashaan Nari Cooper, Vishank
Bhatia, R.Karthikeyan and C.Periasamy, August 2014.

• In this paper, NACA0012 airfoil is chosen and is optimized with GENETIC ALGORITHM
method by using MATLAB interfaced with XFOIL tool.
• The CFD flow simulations and analysis are done for NACA0012 airfoil at various angles of attack
and at a flow velocity of 20 m/s, by using ANSYS FLUENT software.
• The ANSYS Fluent results show that there is a significant increase of 0.05519 in the lift
coefficient value and a decrease in the drag coefficient value by 0.00154.
• Since ANSYS Fluent results were proved to be closer to the practical fluid flow analysis results, it
can be concluded that the optimizer has successfully optimized the design of the airfoil without
changing its basic shape (i.e. NACA0012 with a camber thickness of 0.12). This shows the
capability of Genetic Algorithm to perform a complex optimization processes such as the airfoil
shape optimization effectively.
2) “ Airfoil shape optimization using non-traditional optimization technique and its
validation ”, R. Mukesh , K. Lingadurai , U. Selvakumar , April 2013.

• In this research paper, optimization of the NACA2411 airfoil is carried out to represent the airfoil
shape using polynomial function instead of large number of co-ordinates of the airfoil geometry
and reduce the computational time.
• PARSEC parameterization scheme, PANEL method and GENETIC algorithm are employed in this
work. Lift, drag coefficients and pressure distribution are found for the optimized airfoil.
• The aerodynamic results of the optimized airfoil is validated by an experimental wind tunnel
testing.
• Cl original < Cl optimized
0.8420 0.9681
• The Cl and Cd values of original and optimized airfoils are compared at 5 degree AoA and it is
evident that the optimized airfoil has higher value than the original NACA2411 airfoil.
3) “Parsec parameterization methodology for enhancing airfoils geometry using pso
algorithm”, Rafael Alves da S. Neto , Luciano Gonc¸alves Noleto , Josiane do S. Aguiar de Souza , Novenmber
2016.

• This paper study has focus on designing and analysing through numerical studies of
parametrization and optimization airfoil profiles.
• In this paper MATLAB interfaced with XFOIL has been used for PSO optimization
process.
• For the original airfoil, there was a gain of more than 80 units in the ratio of Cl / Cd.
• Thus it is clear that PSO method of optimization can enhance the aerodynamic properties
of original airfoil keeping the geometry properties such as maximum thickness, mean
camber line shape and position not much altered.
REFERENCES:

• http://airfoiltools.com/airfoil/details?airfoil=naca2411-il

• J.C.Wu Center of Aerodynamics, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, China.

• “Super cooled large droplet icing accretion and its unsteady aerodynamic characteristics
on high-lift devices”, Chen Zhang, Hong Liu, Fuxin Wang and Weiliang Kong.

• “High-Fidelity Computational Modelling of In-Flight Ice Accretion on Aircraft and Rotorcraft