Computational and experimental analysis of partly coated hydrophobic airfoil

Hydrophobic materials are those which repel water molecules, the use of such material on aircraft surfaces can produce lower drag and higher lift compared to smooth finished surfaces, as the potential of reducing skin friction drag is much higher compared to other types of drag. The CFD studies for partly coated hydrophobic were carried out using ANSYS FLUENT software for different angles of attack such as 0°, 5°, 8°, 10°, 12°, 15° for various configurations such as No-Slip, Top-Slip, Rear-Slip and Bottom-Slip. Experiments were carried out with low-speed wind tunnel for the above angle of attack at 15 ms. The agreement between the computational results and experimental results is good. The results showed that out of all the four different configurations Bottom-Slip showed promising results. It provides a significant lift increase at lower angles. This is because the creation of the Laminar Separation Bubble near the trailing edge is delayed.