EXPERIMENT 5

DESIGN OF NACA 4 DIGIT AEROFOIL

AIM:

To design a NACA 2415 aerofoil using MATLAB code

THEORY:

The early NACA aerofoil series, the 4-digit, 5-digit, and modified
4-/5-digit, were generated using analytical equations that describe the
camber (curvature) of the mean-line (geometric centreline) of the aerofoil
section as well as the section's thickness distribution along the length of
the aerofoil. Later families, including the 6-Series, are more complicated
shapes derived using theoretical rather than geometrical methods. Before
the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) developed these
series, aerofoil design was rather arbitrary with nothing to guide the
designer except experience with known shapes and experimentation with
modifications to those shapes.

The figure 5.1 shows the nomenclature of an aerofoil.

5.1 aerofoil nomenclature

An aerofoil is defined by first drawing a mean camber line. The straight

line that joins the leading and trailing ends of the mean camber line is
called the chord line. The length of the chord line is called chord, and
given the symbol c. To the mean camber line, a thickness distribution is
added in a direction normal to the camber line to produce the final aerofoil
shape. Equal amounts of thickness are added above the camber line, and
below the camber line.

An aerofoil with no camber (i.e. a flat straight line for camber) is a

symmetric aerofoil.

Theoretical formulation
The NACA aerofoil section is created from a camber line and a
thickness distribution plotted perpendicular to the camber line.

The equation for the camber line is split into sections either side of
the point of maximum camber position (P). In order to calculate
the position of the final aerofoil envelope later the gradient of the
camber line is also required. The equations are:

The thickness distribution given by the equation:

The constants a0 to a4 are for a 20% thick aerofoil. The

expression T/0.2 adjusts the constants to the required
thickness.
At the trailing edge (x=1) there is a finite thickness of
0.0021 chord width for a 20% aerofoil. If a closed trailing
edge is required, the value of a4 can be adjusted.
The value of yt is a half thickness and needs to be applied
both sides of the camber line.
Using the equations above, for a given value of x it is possible to
calculate the camber line position Yc, the gradient of the camber
line and the thickness. The position of the upper and lower surface
can then be calculated perpendicular to the camber line.
The most obvious way to plot the aerofoil is to iterate through
equally spaced values of x calculating the upper and lower surface
coordinates. While this works, the points are more widely spaced
around the leading edge where the curvature is greatest and flat
sections can be seen on the plots. To group the points at the ends
of the aerofoil sections a cosine spacing is used with uniform
increments of

MATLAB CODE

function y = airfoil(m1,p1,t1)
m=m1*0.01; %the maximum camber thickness%
p=p1*0.1; %the position of the maximum thickness%
t=t1*0.01; % maximum thickness%
x1=[0:0.01:p];
x2=[p:0.01:1];
x=[x1,x2];
yc1=(m*(2*p*x1-x1.^2))/(p^2);
yc2=(m/(1-p)^2)*((1-2*p)+2*p*x2-x2.^2);
yt=(t/0.2)*(0.2969*sqrt(x)-0.1260*x-0.3516*x.^2+0.2843*x.^3-
0.1015*x.^4);
yc=[yc1,yc2];
ang1=(atand((m/p^2)*(2*p-2*x1)));
ang2=(atand((m/(1-p)^2)*(2*p-2*x2)));
ang=[ang1,ang2];
xu=x-yt.*sind(ang);
yu=yc+yt.*cosd(ang);
xl=x+yt.*sind(ang);
yl=yc-yt.*cosd(ang);
xplot=[xu,xl];
yplot=[yu,yl];
plot(xplot,yplot)
axis equal

RESULT
The required design of NACA 2415 is obtained