Design Objective: Design a 2D airfoil with the highest coefficient of lift.
February 2016
Team of 3
Our airfoil would be 3D printed and tested against our predictions in Thayer's wind tunnel.
Iterative airfoil design in XFOIL and ANSYS Fluent
We modeled different iterations of our 2D airfoil using XFOIL and ANSYS fluent. We varied airfoil geometry and simulated various angles of attack.
Fabrication of 2D Airfoil
Solution
By optimizing our airfoil for the anticipated airspeed in the tunnel, our foil achieved a CL of 2.014 at an angle of attack of 16 degrees and won the competition.