Comparison of Aerodynamic Performance of NACA 23012 and NACA 4412 Airfoil: A Numerical Approach

Two of the most widely used airfoils worldwide are NACA 23012 and NACA 4412. The purpose of this study is to investigate and compare the aerodynamic characteristics of these two airfoils for a constant Reynolds number of 5×106. These simulations were conducted in 2D using Spalart-Allmaras as turbulence model by ANSYS Fluent. Numerical results demonstrate that lift coefficient increases with angle of attack up to certain values, after that it decreases due to flow separation. The drag coefficient also increases with angle of attack for both airfoils. However, the rate of increment is much higher after certain angle of attack due to flow separation. Results also shows that lift coefficient is much higher for NACA 4412 compared to NACA 23012 for each angle of attach. It also observed that critical angle of attack for NACA 23012 is 18°, whereas flow is separated one degree earlier in NACA 4412. The whole set of simulated results can be considered as a reference to validate computational fluid dynamics analyses of similar studies.