ANSYS Fluent · CFD · Aerodynamics

Airfoil Ground Effect CFD

A CFD study of how ground clearance changes the aerodynamic efficiency of a NACA 4415 airfoil.

Zoomed CFD mesh around the NACA 4415 airfoil — **Mesh near the airfoil** Refined mesh around the airfoil to capture the flow behaviour close to the surface.

Computational domain and mesh around the airfoil — **Computational domain** Domain setup used to compare multiple ground clearances.

Overview

Why I did this

Ground effect is important when wings, drones or vehicles operate close to a surface. In this project, I investigated how the distance to the ground influences lift, drag and aerodynamic efficiency.

Method

How it was simulated

A NACA 4415 airfoil was modelled in ANSYS Fluent. Several ground clearances were tested and compared using lift coefficient, drag coefficient and lift-to-drag ratio.

Results

Closer to the ground, higher efficiency.

The lift-to-drag ratio is highest at the smallest ground clearance. As h/c increases, the ground effect becomes weaker and the aerodynamic efficiency gradually approaches the free-flight situation.

Lift-to-drag ratio versus ground clearance — **Lift-to-drag ratio vs h/c** The aerodynamic benefit decreases as the airfoil moves further away from the ground.

Takeaway

What this shows

CFD can make aerodynamic behaviour visible before physical testing. The project helped me understand how mesh quality, boundary conditions and post-processing influence engineering conclusions.

Tools

Skills used

ANSYS Fluent, airfoil geometry generation, boundary-condition setup, aerodynamic coefficients and result interpretation.