Investigation of Flow Field Around a Naca Airfoil with OpenFoam and Fluent CFD Software

Abstract

In the last years, Fluent and OpenFoam are the two most reliable CFD software used in simulations of different flow fields in both academic and industry. In this study, the performance of these two CFD simulation software relative to each other was determined for the same boundary conditions for a selected flow area. The highlight of OpenFoam CFD software is that it is free software with open source. In this context, our primary goal is to lead the spread of open-source and free software in the implementation of engineering processes in our country. As the flow area, an airfoil with Naca 2415 section manufactured by Harran-Ravens team was selected for Teknofest competition. As a result of the simulations carried out, the aerodynamic forces and moments that affect the airfoil have been determined. In terms of lift force, the deviation between the two simulations is 6%, while in the drag force the said deviation increases up to 15.5%. Also, the lift and drag coefficient calculated by both simulation results are in good agreement with Airfoil Tools database.

Keywords

• cfd
• openfoam
• fluent
• aerodynamic forces
• naca