Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Aerodynamic performance and stall characteristics of the NACA4412 airfoil: low Reynolds number

  • Published:
Sādhanā Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

The aerodynamic performance of airfoil blades in various design and off-design situations plays a significant role in developing their designs. The current study aims to obtain and critically examine the performance of the NACA4412 airfoil at discrete Reynolds number (Re) and Angle of Attack (AOA) combination by investigating pressure and velocity field mapping. The thorough analysis uses various experimental instruments to explore the flow phenomena, including particle image velocimetry (PIV), pressure transducers, and hot-wire anemometry. The suction side appears critical, as an unfavorable pressure gradient forced the flow within the laminar boundary layer to decelerate and separate. The AOA = 16° is found to be critical, as the recirculation zone's width and length are considerably large. The AOA = 18° is a stall angle as the flow only separates from the leading edge (LE). The flow separation is wholly suppressed at a low AOA range with an increase in Re for a constant AOA. As Re increases at a constant high AOA, the separation length, width, and recirculation strength rise significantly. The bubble formation is observed on suction side at low Re and lower AOA. The results of our hot wire experiments and pressure transducer agree with the PIV findings. Additionally, the surface flow pattern using smoke flow visualization supports the findings. As the AOA exceeds the critical angle, the lift coefficient reduces, and the drag coefficient increases significantly. Also, the momentum thickness at the trailing edge and the wake survey show high loss above critical AOA.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Figure 1
Figure 2
Figure 3
Figure 4
Figure 5
Figure 6
Figure 7
Figure 8
Figure 9
Figure 10
Figure 11
Figure 12
Figure 13
Figure 14
Figure 15

Similar content being viewed by others

Abbreviations

C :

Chord length [mm]

s :

Span length, mm [mm]

x :

Pressure port location [mm]

x/C :

Non-dimensional chord location [--]

α:

Angle of attack (°)

u :

Local flow velocity [m/s]

U :

Free stream velocity [m/s]

ρ :

Density of air [kg/m3]

µ:

Dynamic viscosity [kg/m-s]

ν:

Kinematic viscosity [m2/s]

TI :

Turbulence Intensity (Urms/Umean) [--]

C p :

Loading coefficient \( \left( {\frac{{P - P_{S} }}{{0.5\rho U_{\infty }^{2} }}} \right)\) [--]

P :

Airfoil port pressure [Pa]

P s :

Static pressure [Pa]

P st :

Stagnation pressure \(\left( {0.5\rho U_{\infty }^{2} } \right)\) [Pa]

Pst–Ps :

Tunnel dynamic pressure [Pa]

Re:

Reynold's Number (\(\rho U_{\infty } C/\mu )\)[--]

θ :

Momentum thickness (\(\mathop \int \limits_{0}^{\delta } \frac{u}{U}\left( {1 - \frac{u}{U}} \right)dy\)) [mm]

C L :

Lift coefficient [--]

C D :

Drag coefficient [--]

LE:

Leading edge of the airfoil [--]

TE:

Trailing edge of the airfoil [--]

AOA:

Angle of attack [--]

LSB:

Laminar separation bubble [--]

HWA:

Hot Wire Anemometer [--]

References

  1. Carmichael B H 1981 Low Reynolds number airfoil survey. Volume 1. No. NASA-CR-165803

  2. Diwan S S and Ramesh O N 2007 Laminar separation bubbles: Dynamics and Control. Sadhana 32: 103–109

    Article  Google Scholar 

  3. Tani I 1964 Low-speed flows involving bubble separations. Prog. Aerosp. Sci. 5: 70–103

    Article  Google Scholar 

  4. Genç M S, Karasu I and Açikel H H 2012 An experimental study on aerodynamics of NACA2415 aerofoil at low Re numbers. Exp. Therm. Fluid Sci. 39: 252–264

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Sharma D M and Poddar K 2010 Experimental investigations of laminar separation bubble for a flow past an airfoil. Proc. ASME Turbo. Expo. 6: 1167–1173

    Google Scholar 

  6. Hu H and Yang Z 2008 An experimental study of the laminar flow separation on a low-Reynolds-number airfoil. J Fluids Eng Trans ASME. 130(5): 051101

    Article  Google Scholar 

  7. Lee D, Kawai S, Nonomura T, Anyoji M, Aono H, Oyama A, Asai K and Fujii K 2019 Mechanisms of surface pressure distribution within a laminar separation bubble at different Reynolds numbers. Phys. Fluids 27(2): 023602

    Article  Google Scholar 

  8. Genç M S, Koca K, Açikel H H, Ozkan G, Kiris M S and Yildiz R 2016 Flow characteristics over NACA4412 airfoil at low Reynolds number. E P J Web. Conf. 114: 1–5

  9. Mukhti M A Q A, Didane D H, Ogab M and Manshoor B 2021 Computational fluid dynamic simulation study on NACA 4412 airfoil with various angle of attacks. J. Des. Sustain. Environ. 3: 1–8

    Google Scholar 

  10. Arena A V and Mueller T J 1980 Laminar separation, transition, and turbulent reattachment near the leading edge of airfoils. AIAA J. 18(7): 747–753

    Article  Google Scholar 

  11. Ol M, McCauliffe B, Hanff E, Scholz U and Kähler C 2005 Comparison of laminar separation bubble measurements on a low Reynolds number airfoil in three facilities. In: 35th AIAA fluid dynamics conference and exhibit. 5149

  12. Burgmann S, Brücker C and Schröder W 2006 Scanning PIV measurements of a laminar separation bubble. Exp. Fluids 41: 319–326

    Article  Google Scholar 

  13. Roberts W B 1980 Calculation of laminar separation bubbles and their effect on airfoil performance. AIAA J. 18(1): 25–31

    Article  Google Scholar 

  14. Agrawal M and Saxena G 2013 Analysis of wings using Airfoil NACA 4412 at different angle of attack. Int. J. Mod. Eng. Res. 3: 1467–1469

    Google Scholar 

  15. Koca K, Genç M S, Açıkel H H, Çağdaş M and Bodur T M 2018 Identification of flow phenomena over NACA 4412 wind turbine airfoil at low Reynolds numbers and role of laminar separation bubble on flow evolution. Energy 144: 750–64

    Article  Google Scholar 

  16. Sharma D M and Poddar K (2013) Investigation of dynamic stall characteristics for flow past an oscillating airfoil at various reduced frequencies by simultaneous PIV and surface pressure measurements. 10th Int. Symp. Part. image Velocim. - PIV13

  17. Gleize V, Costes M and Mary I 2022 Numerical simulation of NACA4412 airfoil in pre-stall conditions. Int. J of Num. Meth. for Heat & Fluid Flow 32(4): 1375–1397

  18. Jurnal G, Kolbakir C, Durna A S and Karadag B 2021 Experimental analysis of the effect of plasma actuator on flow control on NACA 4412 airfoil. 11th Ankara Int. Aerosp. Conf. 148

  19. Akansu Y E, Karakaya F and Şanlısoy A 2013 Active control of flow around NACA 0015 airfoil by using DBD plasma actuator. In :EPJ web. of conferences. Vol. 45: 01008

  20. Arunvinthan S, Pillai S N and Cao S 2020 Aerodynamic characteristics of variously modified leading- edge protuberanced (LEP) wind turbine blades under various turbulent intensities. Journal of Wind Engineering and Industrial Aerodynamics 202: 104188

    Article  Google Scholar 

  21. White F M 2011 Fluid Mechanics. 7th edn. McGraw Hills publication, New York, USA

    Google Scholar 

  22. Schlichting H 1979 Boundary layer theory. 7th edn. McGraw-Hills publication, New York, USA

    Google Scholar 

  23. Sharma K R and Dutta S 2020 Flow control over a square cylinder using attached rigid and flexible splitter plate at intermediate flow regime. Phys. Fluids 32(1): 014104

    Article  Google Scholar 

  24. Sharma V and Dutta S 2023 Effect on drag-thrust transition for flapping airfoil with chordwise flexibility. Phys. Fluids 35(7): 074103

    Article  Google Scholar 

  25. Russell J M 1979 Length and bursting of separation bubbles: a physical interpretation. NASA. Langley Res. Center the Sci. and Technol. of Low Speed and Motorless Flight Pt. 1: 177–202

Download references

Acknowledgements

The author would like to acknowledge the research funding support from DST under the research Grant No: CRG/2018/003417. The authors are also thankful for the research facilities and resources available at Flow Control and Turbine Research Lab (FLOW CTRL), IIT Roorkee.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Flow Control and Turbine Research Lab (Flow-CTRL), Mechanical and Industrial Engineering Department, Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee, Uttarakhand, 247667, India

    Shubham Rahal & Sushanta Dutta

Authors
  1. Shubham Rahal
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Sushanta Dutta
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Sushanta Dutta.

Rights and permissions

Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Rahal, S., Dutta, S. Aerodynamic performance and stall characteristics of the NACA4412 airfoil: low Reynolds number. Sādhanā 49, 25 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12046-023-02349-z

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Revised:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12046-023-02349-z

Keywords

Search

Navigation