Characterizing End Plate Drag on the USNA Eiffel Wind Tunnel
Midshipman Researcher(s): 1/C Matthew Pinney
Adviser(s): Major Benjamin Switzer
Poster #2
Wind tunnel testing of airfoils introduces a variety of aerodynamic effects that would, otherwise, be negligible in a freestream. Among these effects is end-wall drag, created due to small unavoidable gaps between the airfoil and the test section, which is notoriously difficult to characterize. This project attempted to standardize an approach for computational fluid dynamics (CFD) analysis of the end-wall drag in the USNA Eiffel wind tunnel. The CFD model produced drag results that compared favorably to experimental data, validating the approach for further testing.
