Computation of Incompressible Potential Flow over an Airfoil Using a High Order Aerodynamic Panel Method Based on Circular Arc Panels

摘要

A new two dimensional panel method has been developed. This method uses a new approximating element; the circular arc, and a new singularity representation; the sine series, and all integrations are performed analytically for maximum computational efficiency. The method was applied to a circular cylinder and to several different types of airfoils, and a number of characteristics which define the method were varied to determine their effects on the solution. Major conclusions from this study were that the method produced very accurate solutions over the major part of the airfoil, error reduction occurred as both the number of panels and the number of terms in the series were increased, the effect of point source location was large but was local and could be controlled, the method was generally insensitive to minor variations in panelling, and the accuracy of the solution increased as panel curvature was increased from relatively flat to circular.