Airfoil selection for wing in ground effect craft

The main purpose of this article was to select airfoil, which generates the biggest lift coefficient, with possibly smallest drag coefficient when the airfoil flies in the wing in ground effect. Wing in ground effect occurs in the direct proximity of ground, the article presents wing in ground effect creation mechanism description with automotive and aerospace examples. The article shows also wing in ground conditions of Ansys Fluent software simulation for all cases with conditions of analysis convergence. The article contains results of the numerical analysis for ten airfoils in three different positive angles of attack in the wing in ground flight; ten airfoils for free stream flight in the same angles of attack as in wing in ground effect, results contains lift and drag coefficients with NACA M8 airfoil presentation as authors choice for wing in ground effect crafts airfoil with full simulation results for angles of attack from –5° to 15°, with profile characteristics. The article shows physics of stall in the wing in ground effect, and a description why stall in WIG effect flight occurs only with drag coefficient rise without lift coefficient drop, and safety measures for aircraft landing with wing in ground effect influence.

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Opracowanie ze środków MNiSW w ramach umowy 812/P-DUN/2016 na działalność upowszechniającą naukę (zadania 2017).