sergiu tofanel
Well-Known Member
I know that the topic has been mentioned a few times before, so I will be posting the results of a few simulations that I have run so far.
For those who are still wondering, the FOAM in OpenFOAM stands for Field Operation and Manipulation, which comprises of a collection of differential equation solvers that can be used in fluid mechanics, structures, thermodynamics and even financial analysis. For more information one can browse here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OpenFOAM
At this moment, the bulk of OpenFOAM solvers deals with CFD modeling, the area of interest being incompressible flow. I am interested in the program mainly because I am looking for a way to simulate flows that are beyond the capabilities of XFLR5, mainly multiple airfoil surfaces in a 2D simulation. As far as I know, there are no other open source (read: free) software packages capable of this. Should OpenFOAM be proven reasonably accurate, it could be an invaluable tool in aiding optimization. For example, I am really interested in finding the optimal positioning of Junker flaps for maximum lift. Also, I would like to assess the effect of leading edge slats as possible additions to STOL wings. I believe that OpenFOAM can be tuned to give reasonably accurate (within 10%-15%) answers to both problems. The purpose of these posts is not to give a tutorial on OpenFOAM (even though I will be happy to assist anyone who wants to run their own simulations), but rather to assess the feasibility of using (and trusting) the data for real life aerodynamic design.
So as a pet project I have decided to test the accuracy of OpenFOAM in validating the NACA experiments described here: http://naca.central.cranfield.ac.uk/reports/1936/naca-report-541.pdf These experiments explore possible geometries for wings consisting of NACA23012 main airfoils and trailing Clark-y junker flaps.
I will divide the next few posts into easily digestible chunks and explain the setup and methods used to arrive at a CFD solution. BTW, I am still running some simulations, but the results look very promising so far.
For those who are still wondering, the FOAM in OpenFOAM stands for Field Operation and Manipulation, which comprises of a collection of differential equation solvers that can be used in fluid mechanics, structures, thermodynamics and even financial analysis. For more information one can browse here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OpenFOAM
At this moment, the bulk of OpenFOAM solvers deals with CFD modeling, the area of interest being incompressible flow. I am interested in the program mainly because I am looking for a way to simulate flows that are beyond the capabilities of XFLR5, mainly multiple airfoil surfaces in a 2D simulation. As far as I know, there are no other open source (read: free) software packages capable of this. Should OpenFOAM be proven reasonably accurate, it could be an invaluable tool in aiding optimization. For example, I am really interested in finding the optimal positioning of Junker flaps for maximum lift. Also, I would like to assess the effect of leading edge slats as possible additions to STOL wings. I believe that OpenFOAM can be tuned to give reasonably accurate (within 10%-15%) answers to both problems. The purpose of these posts is not to give a tutorial on OpenFOAM (even though I will be happy to assist anyone who wants to run their own simulations), but rather to assess the feasibility of using (and trusting) the data for real life aerodynamic design.
So as a pet project I have decided to test the accuracy of OpenFOAM in validating the NACA experiments described here: http://naca.central.cranfield.ac.uk/reports/1936/naca-report-541.pdf These experiments explore possible geometries for wings consisting of NACA23012 main airfoils and trailing Clark-y junker flaps.
I will divide the next few posts into easily digestible chunks and explain the setup and methods used to arrive at a CFD solution. BTW, I am still running some simulations, but the results look very promising so far.
