Abstract
The analysis of the two dimensional subsonic flow over a National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) 0015 airfoil at two angles of attack, (α= 0°, α= 16°) and operating at a Reynolds number of 4.4 x 105 is presented. The flow was obtained by solving the steady-state governing equations of continuity and momentum conservation combined with one of three turbulence models [Spalart-Allmaras, Realizable and shear stress transport (SST)] aiming to the validation of these models through the comparison of the predictions and the free field experimental measurements for the selected airfoil. The aim of the work was to show the behavior of the airfoil at these conditions and to establish a verified solution method. Attention is focused on determination of the pressure distribution around the airfoil. Simulations were performed on an map quadratic structured grid with the Fluent (V6.3) software package which solves the Navier–Stokes equations by using finite volume methods. Calculations were done for constant air velocity altering only the angle of attack for every turbulence model tested. Calculations showed that the turbulence models used in commercial CFD codes do not give yet accurate results at high angles of attack and show that the Realizable k- model gave the most closness prediction of pressure distribution when compared with the experimental data [1].
