Effect of the shape of flapping airfoils on aerodynamic forces

Fahad Butt; Tariq Talha; Rehan Khan; Abdur Rehman Mazhar; Mahad Butt; Jana Petru; Asiful H Seikh

doi:10.1016/j.heliyon.2024.e29561

Effect of the shape of flapping airfoils on aerodynamic forces

Heliyon. 2024 Apr 15;10(8):e29561. doi: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2024.e29561. eCollection 2024 Apr 30.

Authors

Fahad Butt¹, Tariq Talha², Rehan Khan², Abdur Rehman Mazhar², Mahad Butt³, Jana Petru⁴, Asiful H Seikh⁵

Affiliations

¹ Digital Pakistan Lab, National University of Sciences and Technology, Islamabad, Pakistan.
² Department of Mechanical Engineering, College of Electrical & Mechanical Engineering, National University of Sciences and Technology, Islamabad, Pakistan.
³ Department of Mechanical Engineering, Ghulam Ishaq Khan Institute of Engineering Sciences and Technology, Topi, Pakistan.
⁴ Department of Machining, Assembly and Engineering Metrology, Mechanical Engineering Faculty, VŠB-Technical University of Ostrava, 17. listopadu 2172/15, 708 00, Ostrava, Czech Republic.
⁵ Mechanical Engineering Department, College of Engineering, King Saud University, Riyadh, 11421, Saudi Arabia.

Abstract

The rapid exhaustion of fossil fuels and the ozone depletion caused by the excessive usage of the fossil fuels has prompted researchers to look towards bioinspired designs for both propulsion and energy extraction purposes. Limited amount of work has been done to present the effects of airfoil shape on the aerodynamic forces on flapping foils. In this paper, we examine in detail the effect of airfoil camber and its position on flapping foil performance in both energy extraction and propulsion regimes. We also examine the effect of reflex camber on flapping foil performance in both flow regimes. In total, 42 airfoils are analyzed using the NACA 4 and 5-series cross-sections. The man objective of this research is to identify a trend, between airfoil shape and aerodynamic forces. The database created as a result will be used in the future work for designing a hydrokinetic turbine and a bio-inspired unmanned aerial vehicle. The results from the numerical simulations indicate that the airfoil shape has significant effects on the time averaged drag force on the airfoil in both flow regimes. However, the time averaged lift force remains negligible for all cases.