Testing of the Aerodynamic Characteristics of an Inflatable Airfoil Section
Publication: Journal of Aerospace Engineering
Volume 33, Issue 5
Abstract
Inflatable structures are characterized by being light and easy to manufacture and deploy. Hence, they find many applications in aerospace and aeronautical engineering. In this paper, an inflatable segment with a The National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) 0021 airfoil cross-section is designed, fabricated, and tested. The geometrical accuracy of the manufactured inflatable segment is measured using laser scanning. Measurements show that the average normalized error of the chord length and thickness are 2.97% and 0.554%, respectively. The aerodynamic behavior of the inflatable segment is then tested in a wind tunnel at different wind speeds and angles of attack. Lift forces are measured using a six-component balance, while the drag forces are calculated from the wake measurements. The lift and drag coefficients of the inflatable section are compared to those of a standard NACA 0021 airfoil. Finally, flow visualization is examined at different angles of attack using two methods: smoke and tufts. Both methods show that flow separation starts at 15° and full stall occurs at 25°. Results indicate that inflatables can find more applications in the design and construction of aerodynamic structures, such as wings.
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Data Availability Statement
The following data are available from the corresponding author by request: geometry of the inflatable airfoil section, 3D scanning data, and wind tunnel measurements.
Acknowledgments
This work was supported by the Science and Technology Development Fund (STDF) in Egypt (Grant No. 25471) for funding the visit to Chalmers University. The authors would also like to thank the reviewers of the manuscript, as their constructive comments helped to improve the analyses and discussions presented in this paper.
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Information
Published In
Journal of Aerospace Engineering
Volume 33 • Issue 5 • September 2020
Copyright
© 2020 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Jun 22, 2019
Accepted: May 29, 2020
Published online: Jul 9, 2020
Published in print: Sep 1, 2020
Discussion open until: Dec 9, 2020
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