M22008 – Computational Fluid Mechanics
Investigation of air flow over an aerofoil
You will work in groups of three to perform a comparison of the properties of three aerofoil shapes,
based on CFD simulations in two-dimensions, at an air speed of 50 m/s. In your report you should
include details of the simulation such as grid shape and size, grid convergence, residual behaviour,
and the input parameters for the simulation. You should also present the results of your simulations
indicating aspects such as air flow over the wing section, pressure variations and lift and drag
coefficients. In particular you should investigate and compare the performance of the wings at
different angles of attack.
Each group should consider three aerofoil shapes to compare. A number of different shapes are
available from
https://m-selig.ae.illinois.edu/ads/coord_database.html
where you can view the shape of the aerofoil as well as download a data file. Wing shapes
obtained from elsewhere can also be used.
You will be assessed by an oral presentation of your group’s results (30%) and a formal group
report (70%). The oral presentation will take place on Friday15th January for students on the MEng
Mechanical Engineering course, and on Friday 22nd January for all other students. The
presentation will last for 10 minutes and then be followed by questions. The report should be around
2,500 words long and is due by 11:00 on 19/01/2021. The report is to be submitted through Moodle
and only one submission is required for each group.
The following marking scheme will be applied to the report
Planning and initiative: 15%
Structure and presentation: 15%
Simulation design and validation: 25%
Simulation work and analysis: 25%
Discussion and conclusions: 20%
The following marking scheme will be applied to the oral presentation
Presentation material: 33%
Oral presentation (including questions): 33%
Discussion and analysis of results (including questions): 34%
The presentations will take place on-line using WebEx. The presentations can either be done live on
the day, or they can be pre-recorded and played through WebEx. Whichever format you choose to
use for the presentation, it will be followed by a question and answer session which all members of
the group should be present for. During the presentation, each student must present the results of
their investigation and be ready to answer questions on their contribution.
On the first page of the report, each group must specify which member of the group simulated which
aerofoil. Also, each student must specify the contribution of each group member (these must sum to
3). For example
Student 700000: Eppler E1098 general aviation airfoil
Student 700001: NACA 0012 airfoil
Student 700002: Boeing-Vertol V23010-1.58
The final mark for each student will be M*((SM/3 + LM/3)/2), where M is the report or presentation
mark, SM (Student Mark) is obtained from the table and LM (Lecturer Mark) is a contribution mark
(totalling 9 for the whole group) assigned by the lecturers. In cases where SM and LM are
significantly different, the mark will be finalised through a viva.