DIRECT DESIGN OF AIRFOIL SHAPE WITH A PRESCRIBED SURFACE PRESSURE

Abstract

This article describes a new method for calculating the shape of an airfoil that has a prescribed surface pressure distribution. By application of a standard computational fluid dynamics method, sets of coupled algebraic equations are obtained in which the coordinates that define the airfoil shape appear explicitly as dependent variables. The flow distribution and the airfoil shape are obtained by solving these equations. The method is described, applied, and validated here in the context of 2-D ideal flow, but it can, in principle, be used with the Euler or Navier–Stokes equations.

Financial support of this research was provided through a research grant from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada to the second author. The authors acknowledge Wei Xin Xu for his contribution [25, 26], and wish to thank Juan Carlos Morales for helpful discussions.

Notes

¹Alternative specifications are often used [29].