An Investigation of the Effect of Aspect Ratio on the Airfoil Performance

The effect of aspect ratio on the airfoil performance is investigated for airflow about axially symetric wings as a function of the angle of attack. The magnitudes of aerodynamic forces and moments on airfoils resulting from the incompressible viscous flow fields are determined experimentally. The TE54 wind tunnel used for the experiments is an open conduit and has a 300x300 mm x-section with a closed test chamber. The TE81 digital measurement device is used which has three components. Three different types of airfoil profiles are tested under the airflow speed of 33.76 m s-1 and it is concluded that the airfoil with the aspect ratio of 2.761 yields the optimum performance.