COMPARISON OF NACA 0012 AND KFM-4 WING PROFILES FOR HIGH SPEED UNMANNED AERIAL VEHICLES

The aim of the study is to present an analysis and comparison of airflow over KFm-4 (Kline-Fogleman) and NACA 0012 airfoils. The result of this comparison is to evaluate the suitability of using it in high-speed unmanned aerial vehicles. While increasing the speed of high-speed unmanned aerial vehicles, it will be important to fly more stable, have better maneuverability, reduce the drag force and delay separation. The calculations were obtained by performing computational fluid dynamics analyses. Since two-dimensional and three-dimensional airfoils showed equivalent results, two-dimensional airfoils were used. Analysis was conducted under conditions of a low Reynolds number, with a consistent velocity at Mach 0.6 and a zero-degree angle of attack. To validate the precision of the outcomes, a series of tests were executed, involving variations in grid size or node configurations. With the increase in the number of nodes, the transport coefficient exhibited a rising trend; however, upon reaching 305,100 nodes, further increase in nodes did not lead to any significant change in the transport coefficient. As a result, a transport coefficient value of 0.10103 was obtained for the NACA 0012 profile, while a transport coefficient value of 0.072038 was obtained for the KFm-4 profile. Thus, it was concluded that it would be more appropriate to use the NACA 0012 profile in high-speed unmanned aerial vehicles.