Survey of Separation Prediction Methods Applied to Potential Flow Solutions for an Airfoil

Abstract

This study was conducted to provide a new possible approach to the designing process of an airfoil. Four different computational separation prediction methods were used to investigate the separation characteristics of an airfoil. A panel method code was used to calculate the pressure distribution on each airfoil. By using a panel method as a tool to obtain the pressure distribution, which is to be used as input data for a prediction method code, the entire process of analysis of separation characteristics would be totally computational. And then, each airfoil can be analyzed in a short period of time so that it becomes possible to investigate a large number of airfoils in the process of designing an airfoil. Due to the invalidity of the pressure distribution calculated by Panel method where the angle of attack is large, however, the calculated results must be carefully taken into consideration with limitations in terms of Reynolds number, the angle of attack and an airfoil geometry.