Effects of Airfoil Thickness on Airfoil Aerodynamic Characteristics

The theoretical model of predicting airfoil aerodynamic characteristics was established which then was numerical calculated Effects of airfoil thickness on airfoil aerodynamic characteristics were studied.Effect laws of airfoil thickness on lift coefficient,drag coefficient,lift-drag ratio and flow field around airfoil,pressure coefficient were given.The results show that,the effect of airfoil thickness is obvious to the aerodynamic characteristics.At small angle of attack range,the airfoil of smaller thickness leads to the larger lift-drag ratio.At larger angle of attack range,increasing airfoil thickness can improve lift-drag ratio and extend large lift-drag ratio range.Also the separation point of thicker airfoil moves forward slower and the range of vortex distribution is smaller.