WK95
Well-Known Member
I'm not too keen on the idea of messy around with airfoil geometry without some sort of testing but for my purposes, the E214 airfoil for low reynolds number flight (Re=400,000) is a bit too thin. I'd like to add a bit of bulk to it to achieve 15% thickness or maybe a little bit less if I can manage to use smaller spar tubes (or possibly just use multiple spars instead of just one but I digress).
The thing is, NACA airfoils often come in various flavors when it comes to thickness but with the Eppler foils, this does not seem to be the case (or maybe I missed it since the airfoils don't have a particular naming scheme to reflect % thickness). As far as I know, there is no Eppler variant of the E214 with more thickness so there most certainly isn't any wind tunnel data on that. So without access to a wind tunnel, can I thicken the airfoil a bit without dramatically changing the properties?
Has anyone else found a need to thicken an airfoil for which there was no thicker variant available? How did it work out?
I realize I may be overthinking this a bit but I'd like to attack every possible doubt so I can have confidence in my design short of getting a degree in aerodynamics and mastering wind tunnel and CFD software.
The thing is, NACA airfoils often come in various flavors when it comes to thickness but with the Eppler foils, this does not seem to be the case (or maybe I missed it since the airfoils don't have a particular naming scheme to reflect % thickness). As far as I know, there is no Eppler variant of the E214 with more thickness so there most certainly isn't any wind tunnel data on that. So without access to a wind tunnel, can I thicken the airfoil a bit without dramatically changing the properties?
Has anyone else found a need to thicken an airfoil for which there was no thicker variant available? How did it work out?
I realize I may be overthinking this a bit but I'd like to attack every possible doubt so I can have confidence in my design short of getting a degree in aerodynamics and mastering wind tunnel and CFD software.
