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Suggested references for "low" Reynolds number airfoil performance?

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Grimace

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jan 2, 2009
Messages
319
Location
Chicago, IL
I'm looking for references that discuss, or provide equations, or even pretty pictures for standard aircraft airfoils in the Reynolds number range of about 1 million and up...

I've seen lots of stuff about wind turbines and R/C models in the under 400K range, however I'm looking for some information in the middle... specifically the 1 to 3 million range that isn't covered by the NACA data.

Someone had previously brought up the issue of low-Reynolds stall characteristics on "normal" airplane wings, but I can't find much on the topic. Approaching stall, my Re would be around 1.00E6 on a 24" chord... 1.3E6 on a 30" chord and so forth... And I'm really inclined toward smaller wings to get a greater aspect ratio for a given wing area, but I don't want to push things too far...


And as a little side question... in general, it's my observation that the effect of reynolds numbers on low-speed flight is less significant on a thinner airfoil... the thicker sections, for example, have greater changes (for the worse) in lift/drag/aoa as the Re drops down to 3E6. And flaps/slats/etc are also less effective at low Re numbers as well. Is there any data available for low Re flap systems? Does any book/reference/research cover this topic?
 
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