Numerical Analysis of Aerodynamic and Shock Wave Characteristics of Biconvex and Double-Wedge Shape Airfoils for Supersonic Flow

Abstract

This present study describes the aerodynamic characteristics of supersonic flow over biconvex and double wedge airfoils using a finite volume method-based commercial CFD code Ansys Fluent. A steady-state RANS approach is used with SST k-ω viscous modeling. A series of simulations are conducted to analyze the characteristics of shock and expansion waves formed around the airfoils for Mach numbers ranging from 1.4 to 3.4 with varying angles of attack (α) from 0° to 20°. It is observed that the lift and drag coefficients both increase with the angle of attack for a fixed Mach number and decrease with the Mach number for a fixed angle of attack. Double wedge airfoil generates about 5% more lift at a low Mach number and 1% more lift at a higher Mach number compared to the biconvex airfoil. However, the biconvex airfoil generates lesser drag than the double wedge airfoil. The maximum value of the pressure coefficient (Cp ) is found to be 1.7 for biconvex airfoil and 1.4 for double wedge airfoil. The maximum value of the lift-to-drag ratio for biconvex airfoil is 7.63, occurs at 1.4 Mach number and 3.46° angle of attack, whereas the value for double wedge airfoil is 5.19 at the same Mach number with 4.47° angle of attack, which suggest that biconvex airfoil has a higher lift-to-drag ratio and gives a better aerodynamics performance. The shock waves start to detach after an angle of attack of 5° and the shock wave is fully detached at a 15° angle of attack for biconvex airfoil for Mach number of 1.4. For the same Mach number, the double wedge airfoil, the shock wave starts to form the same as the biconvex airfoil but the waves are fully detached at a lower angle of attack of 10°. With the increasing Mach number, the shock waves remain attached to the airfoil.