SCHOOL OF ENGINEERING

DEPARTMENT OF AEROSPACE ENGINEERING

Jain global campus, kanakapura taluk - 562112
ramanagara district, karnataka, india

2021-2022

project centric learning report on

Design Optimization and Analysis of NACA 0012 Airfoil using

Computational fluid dynamics and Genetic algorithm

Submitted in partial fulfilment for the award of the degree of

Bachelor of Technology
in
AEROSPACE ENGINEERING
Submitted by

NAME: PANTALEO PROSPER KIRUWA

USN: 20BTRAS057
NAME: MD SHAHRIAR MAHMUD
USN: 20BTRAS055
NAME: SAMUEL EDSON
USN: 20BTRAN41
&
NAME: MD ZIAUL HOQUE AKASH
USN: 20BTRAN035

Under the guidance of

Mr. Naveen Kumar Rajendran

School of Engineering
Department of Aerospace Engineering
Faculty of Engineering and Technology
 JAIN (Deemed to be UNIVERSITY)

Keywords: Computational Fluid Dynamics, Airfoil, Viscous flow, NACA 0012, ANSYS Fluent,
MATLAB, Genetic algorithm, XFoil

Abstract. CFD method is inexpensive method of analysis of flow over aerodynamic

structure. It incorporates mathematical relations and algorithms to analyze and solve the
problems regarding fluid flow. CFD analysis of an airfoil produces results such as lift and
drag forces which determines the ability of an airfoil. Optimization of an airfoil involves
improving the design of the airfoil in order to manipulate the lift and drag coefficients
according to the requirements. It is a very common method used in all fields of engineering.
MATLAB is a numerical computing environment which supports interface with other
software. XFoil is airfoil analysis software which calculates the lift and drag characteristics
for different Reynolds numbers, Mach numbers and angles of attack. MATLAB is interfaced
with XFoil and the optimization of NACA 0012 airfoil is done and the results are analyzed.
The performance of optimized air foil is analyzed using ANSYS FLUENT software.

Introduction
Aerodynamics. It is the way air moves around things and anything that moves through air
reacts to aerodynamics. The rules of aerodynamics explain how an airplane is able to fly. A
rocket blasting off the launch pad reacts to aerodynamics. Aerodynamics is important in
various applications other than just aerospace engineering. It is a significant factor in almost
any type of vehicle design, including automobiles since air flows around them as well. If
any moving vehicle is not made keeping aerodynamics in mind it can cause a huge variety of
failures including structural failure [1].
Airfoil. It is the cross sectional profile of any aerodynamic structure which is used to analyse
the aerodynamic properties. There are two main categories of airfoil: Symmetric and
Asymmetric airfoils. Asymmetric airfoil is used when there needs to be more lift than drag
(i.e) L/D ratio needs to be high. In the case of an airplane wing the airfoil predominantly
used is a asymmetric airfoil. It is usually an airfoil with flat bottom and a curved top. Thus
when air passes the air the top speeds up when compared to the air at the bottom. This results
in the formation of a low pressure region at the top. Air moves from a region of high pressure
to a region of low pressure. Since the airfoil is sandwiched between the two regions it gets
displaced upwards. Hence lift is achieved. Lift achieved is highly dependent on the angle of
attack and shape of the airfoil. Symmetric airfoils in which the upper profile is mirror image
of the lower profile can achieve lift as well but at a higher angle of attack [2].
Computational fluid dynamics Computational Fluid Dynamics is a branch of
computational physics that involves the use of numerical methods and algorithms to compute
solutions to problems involving fluid flows. This involves the use of computers to solve the
system of governing equations that define the physics, in this case the Navier-Stokes
equations, and thus simulate the dynamic interaction between the surface and fluid defined
by prescribed boundary and initial conditions. Fluent software is one of many commercial
solvers that uses finite element discretization to solve the system of equations. The basic
steps for obtaining the flow field in ANSYS FLUENT are the following [3]:
• Definition of geometry and Discretization of the fluid volume around the geometry
• Definition of Physical model which states the governing system of equations
• Definition of Boundary and Initial conditions
• Solution of the governing systems of partial differential equations and Visualization
of the results

The governing equations are defined by the physics of the problem. In CFD analysis of the
winglets, Fluent will solve three governing equations. These include equations for
conservation of mass, momentum and energy. The conservation of mass or the continuity
equation can be written is as follows:

where is fluid density, t is time,

Is flow velocity vector. and is the mass generation.
The conversation of momentum, Navier-Stokes equation, can be written as follows:

where is thedeviatoric stress tensor and is the body force, per unit volume.
The conservation of energy equation can be written as follows:

(1)

(2)

(3)
Xfoil. The XFOIL airfoil design system has proven to be powerful and very useful tool for
subcritical airfoil design and is particularly applicable to low Reynolds number airfoils.
Various graphics oriented routines perform assorted analysis, inverse and geometry
modification functions on a common airfoil representation and can be easily exercised by the
designer from a unified menu structure with complete flexibility. Since all the important
physical mechanism which affect airfoil performance are represented in the overall
computational model any airfoil modifications which are found to affect performance can be
relied on to have a physical rather than numerical basis. The system thus allows the designer
to quickly try out new design approaches and develop design philosophies for any given type
of applications.
The overall XFOIL design/analysis system consists of a collection of menu driven
routines which perform the viscous or inviscid analysis and inverse calculations. Supporting
routines such as panel distribution generation, explicit geometry manipulation, disk I/O and
graphics are also driven from the same menu structure. The geometry manipulator allows
explicit control of camber, thickness, leading edge radius, trailing edge gap etc. This is very
useful if inviolable geometric constraints must be met and can be very effective for achieving
certain geometric specifications as well [4].
Objective. The objective of the present study is to optimize a basic symmetric airfoil NACA
0012 using MATLAB Generic Algorithm interfaced with the Xfoil analysis software. The
coefficients of lift, drag and the lift to drag ratio of the original and optimized profile for
different angles of attacks are compared to test the capability. ANSYS FLUENT software is
used to compare the results obtained for the optimized profile.
Lift and Drag data for NACA 0012
The XFoil software was used to get the lift and drag coefficients for an angle of attack of 3˚
for the NACA 0012. A notepad file with the 200 coordinates of the NACA profile was fed as
the input for the software and the result was obtained (shown in Fig. 1). The Reynolds
number of 1 million was used for analysis.

Fig 1. Xfoil analysis results for NACA 0012 airfoil

Optimization of the NACA 0012 Airfoil using Genetic Algorithm

The MATLAB Genetic Algorithm interfaced with Xfoil was used for optimization. The aim
of the optimization is to maximize the lift and minimize the drag forces. Three control points
were used for the analysis [7], [8]. These points are the ones that are manipulated by the
optimizer to achieve optimization goals. A constrain region is also defined to limit the
manipulation of the control points (shown in Fig. 2).
XFoil is called through a DOS batch file, and instructed to load the airfoil coordinate
input file and perform the analysis through a VB script. The analysis involves a lift and drag
evaluation at 0° angle of attack, and another one at 3°. The polar as well as the pressure
coefficient data are saved as files to be loaded back into the MATLAB. XFoil would then
exit. The objective function parses the XFoil output files, and extracts the drag, lift and
pressure information. Finally, the objective function value is a weighted sum of drag at 0°
and 3° angle of attack, and the maximum pressure coefficient at 3°. It was decided that drag
coefficients at 0° and 3° are equally important, since the airfoil would be subjected to some
cross wind during operation. A very large (negative) pressure coefficient can often lead to
high skin friction due to high flow speed on the airfoil, as well as high adverse pressure
gradient, thus is likely a feature of a bad airfoil. However, it is obviously less indicative of
the drag as drag coefficient, therefore it receives less weight. The function result is returned
back to the optimizer for evaluation, completing the iteration [5-6]. Each iteration takes
about 2 seconds. The optimization was carried out for 1000 iterations. The optimized airfoils
co-ordinates were taken from the file for the analysis using XFoil and ANSYS Fluent was
performed.

Fig 2. Optimization results from MATLAB optimizer

CFD analysis Results of the optimized profile

Fig 3. Xfoil Analysis results for the optimized profile

The results were obtained for the optimized profile for an angle of attack of 3˚ using XFoil
for Reynolds number equal to 1 million (Fig. 3).
The CFD analysis for the optimized profile was performed on ANSYS Fluent at a velocity
of 20 m/s. Firstly, a 3-D spline was plotted using the coordinates of the optimized profile.
Meshing was done in such a way that the mesh is dense near the airfoil and scattered away
from it. The analysis was carried out at a Reynolds number equal to 1 million. The pressure
and velocity contours along with the lift and drag coefficient values were obtained (shown in
Fig. 4) for 3° of angle of attack. The Lift and Drag coefficient values for the profile in
ANSYS were 0.37519 and 0.00485 respectively.

Fig 4. Static Pressure and velocity contours for the optimized profile

Conclusion
Xfoil Results. From the comparison of Xfoil analysis results for the NACA 0012 and the
optimized profile, we can see that there is an increase of 0.0336 in the lift coefficient values.
There is very negligible difference in the drag coefficient values. The lift to drag ratio, which
is a cumulative parameter for determining the performance of the airfoil, has increased from
50.07 to 53.85.
ANSYS Fluent Results. The ANSYS Fluent results show that there is a significant increase
of 0.05519 in the lift coefficient value and a decrease in the drag coefficient value by
0.00154. Since ANSYS Fluent results were proved to be closer to the practical fluid flow
analysis results, it can be concluded that the optimizer has successfully optimized the design
of the airfoil without changing its basic shape (i.e. NACA0012 with a camber thickness of
0.12). This shows the capability of Genetic Algorithm to perform a complex optimization
processes such as the airfoil shape optimization effectively.
From the pressure contour in Fig. 3, it can be noted that there is a low pressure region at
the top of the airfoil which assists lift as air moves from a region of higher pressure to a
region of lower pressure, hence pushing the airfoil on its way. The static pressure given by
the ANSYS Fluent is the sum of gauge pressure and operational pressure. Therefore,
negative means the gauge pressure is 106 Pa below the operational pressure. The peak static
pressure is 170 Pa which is at the leading edge of the airfoil. This point is called stagnation
point. At this point, the kinetic energy is completely converted into pressure energy. From
the velocity contour in Fig. 3, it can be observed that the velocity at this point is the least.
The velocity of the fluid is high above the airfoil, which is mainly due to the angle of attack.
This aids the formation of a low pressure region at the top surface.

Table 1. Summary of CFD Analysis results

Profile Coefficient of Lift (Cl) Coefficient of Drag (Cd)
Original Profile 0.3200 0.00639
Optimized Profile (Xfoil) 0.3536 0.00657
Optimized Profile (ANSYS) 0.37519 0.00793

References
• E. L. Houghton, P. W. Carpenter, Aerodynamics for Engineering
Students,
Butterworth-Heinemann, 2003
• Christian Wauquiez, Shape Optimization of Low Speed Airfoils using MATLAB and
Automatic Differentiation, Licentiate’s Thesis, Royal Institute of Technology, 2000
• ANSYS FLUENT Theory Guide, November, 2011
• Mark Drela., XFOIL: An analysis and Design System for Low Reynolds Number
Airfoils.,
Conference Low Reynolds number Aerodynamics, University of Notre Dame, June 1989
• Zheng Wang: Airfoil Geometry Design for Minimum Drag, Project report, University
of Bath, 2005
• B. Allen Gardner and Michael S. Selig, Airfoil design using a genetic algorithm and an
inverse method, 41st Aerospace Sciences Meeting and Exhibit 6–9 January 2003.

• Naishadh G. Vasjaliya and Sathya N. Gangadharan, ‘Aero-Structural Design

Optimization of Composite Wind Turbine Blade’
• R. Reuss Ramsay, M. J. Hoffmann, G.M. Gregorek, ‘Effects of Grit Roughness
and Pitch Oscillations on the S809 Airfoil’
• Marco Ceze, Marcelo Hayashiy and Ernani Volpez ‘A Study of the CST
Parameterization Characteristics‘
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