Airfoil Camber Analysis

For this project, my teammate and I were tasked with designing and executing a mechanical engineering related experiment of our choice. Given the 3-week time constraint of the project, the accessibility of the engineering lab’s wind tunnel, and our interest in aviation, we decided that the focus of the project should be on airfoils. Specifically, we wanted to optimize an element of airfoils that would enable experimental aircraft to have increased useful loads. So, our research project focused on elucidating the relationship between airfoil camber and experimentally derived coefficient of lift. By 3D printing NACA airfoils of differing camber and testing their respective lifts in a wind tunnel, a positive, linear relationship between maximum camber percentage and the coefficient of lift was obtained, supporting the conclusion that airfoils of higher camber contribute to increased coefficient of lift, and, by extension, increased useful load of experimental aircraft.

If you would like to read the full paper, please send me an email!