Airfoil Nomenclature: (Sect 4.

2, pp 318-320)

• Common usage often uses wing and airfoil interchangeably.

• Aerodynamic terminology makes a clear distinction between

the terms:

- A wing is a three-dimensional structure that creates lift. It

is finite in span.

- An airfoil is the cross-section shape of an infinitely long

wing with constant cross-section.

170
• The wing of most low speed aircraft is sufficiently long and
uniform to allow us to approximate the flow as two-
dimensional.

• There are numerous ways to define the shape of an airfoil

profile.

- In the early days of aviation designers literally kept

wooden models of their airfoil profiles.

- This was not suitable for a scientific approach to aircraft

design and development.

171
• The approach often taken is to describe a camber and
thickness distribution as shown below.

172
• The airfoil section was created by wrapping the thickness
distribution over the camber distribution as shown below.

173
• Notice how a thickness distribution is wrapped evenly about
the camber line.

- The thickness is added normal to the camber line – not

vertical.

- The maximum value of the thickness distribution is the

sections thickness.

- The maximum value of the camber is its camber.

174
NACA Airfoil Classification

• The U.S. National Advisory Committee on Aerodynamics

developed a system of classification that is still in common
use today.

NACA Four-digit Wing Sections

NACA d1d 2 d 3d 4

- d1 is the maximum camber in percent chord.

- d2 is the location of the maximum camber in tenths of

chord.

- d3d4 is the maximum thickness in percent of chord

175
• Examples:

- NACA 2421 is an airfoil with 2% chamber at 40% chord

and is 21% thick.

- NACA 0012 is a symmetric airfoil that is 12% thick.

176
NACA Five-digit Wing Sections

NACA d1d 2 d 3d 4 d 5

- d1 is 2/3 of the ‘design’ lift coefficient in tenths (3/2 is the

lift coefficient).

- d2d3 is twice the location of the maximum camber in

percent of chord (d2d3/2 is the location).

- d4d5 is the maximum thickness in percent of chord

• Example:

- NACA 23012 is a 12% thick airfoil with a design lift

coefficient of 0.3 and maximum camber at 15% chord.

177
• The design lift coefficient is the lift coefficient when the
forward stagnation point is at the leading edge, and
represents the ‘optimum’ performance for that section.

178
NACA 1-series Wing Sections

NACA d1d 2 -d 3d 4 d 5

- d1 is the series number, 1 for 1-series sections.

- d2 is the distance in tenths of chord to the location of the

minimum pressure for the equivalent symmetric profile.

- d3 is the design lift coefficient in tenths.

- d4d5 is the maximum thickness in percent of chord.

179
• Example:

- NACA 16-212 is a series 1 airfoil that is 12% thick with a

design lift coefficient of 0.2 and a minimum pressure at
60% chord.

180
NACA 6-series Wing Sections

NACA d1d 2 ,d 3 -d 4 d 5d 6 , a=0.5

- d1 is the series number, 6 for 6-series sections.

- d2 is the position of the minimum pressure of the

thickness distribution in tenths of chord.

- d3 is the range of lift coefficient, in tenths, above and

below the design lift coefficient for favorable pressure
gradients to exist on both surfaces.

- d4 is the design lift coefficient in tenths.

- d5d6 is the maximum thickness in percent of chord.

181
• The designation, a, indicates the type of mean line used.
When it is not given it is assumed that a=1.0, the uniform
mean load line.

182
NACA 4 and 5 digit thickness distribution

• The 4 and 5 digit NACA airfoils use the same thickness

distribution function.

• It is

 x x x
2

0.2069 − 0.1260   − 0.3516   
zt t  c  
c  
c .
=
c 0.2  x
3
x
4

 + 0.2843   − 0.01015   
 c c 

183
NACA 4 digit camber distribution
• The camber line distribution is given by two curves.
• Two parameters are required:
- The maximum camber, m.
- The location of the maximum camber, p.
• Then we have
zc m  x x 
2
x
= 2 
2 p   −    for 0 ≤ ≤ p, and
c p  c c  c

zc m  x x 
2
x
= (1 − 2 p ) + 2 p   −    for p ≤ ≤ 1.
(1 − p ) c c 
2
c  c

184
NACA 5 digit camber distribution

• The camber line is also defined by two curves, as before p is

the location of maximum camber.

• We now define two new parameters m and k1, which are

given in the following table.

p m K1
0.05 0.0580 361.400
0.10 0.1260 51.640
0.15 0.2025 15.957
0.20 0.2900 6.643
0.25 0.3910 3.230

185
• The camber line is given by

zc k1  x   x 
3 2
 x
=   − 3m   + m ( 3 − m )   
2

c 6  c  c  c 
x
for 0 ≤ ≤ p, and
c

zc k1m 3   x   x
= 1 −    for p ≤ ≤ 1.
c 6   c  c

186
Other Wing Section Classifications

• Göttingen Profiles

- Numbered approximately in the order they were tested.

- Early German types

• DVL (Deutsche Versuchsanstald Luftfahrt)

- Extended and modified NACA series

187
• RAE Profiles

- British airfoil series

- Used for fan blade profiles too.

• Etc.

- Many other classification systems exist.

188
Airfoil Characteristics: (Sect. 4.3, pp 320-325)

• There are extensive data bases of airfoil section

characteristics:

- The work by NACA done in the 1930-49 period. See

Abbot and von Doenhoff, Theory of Wing Sections:
including a summary of airfoil data, Dover, New York,
1959.

- Riegels, Aerofoil Sections: results from wind-tunnel

investigations, Butterworths, London, 1961

- Eppler, Airfoil Design and Data, Springer-Verlag, Berlin,

1990.

189
 - The work by Selig and co-workers, Summary of Low-
Speed Airfoil Data, vol 1-4, SoarTech Publications,
Virginia Beach, USA, 1989-1997.

- Additionally, airfoil data is given for specific airfoils and

series in various scientific papers and magazine articles.

• The main feature of these collections is that they are

predominantly based on experimental measurements.

190