Shape optimization of the airfoil comprising a cross flow fan

Purpose – Fanwing airfoil is a new lift‐generating section invented in 1997 by Patrick Peebles. The early shape of the airfoil has not changed until now. So far, no research has been done to change or modify the airfoil shape in order to improve its aerodynamic performance. In this paper, possibility of changing the airfoil shape to improve its aerodynamic performance is studied. For this purpose, six different geometric shapes of the airfoil are investigated numerically to determine the best airfoil on the basis of lift and drag coefficients. Flow over the airfoil is solved by developing a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) code. The purpose of this paper is to find a more efficient configuration for the Fanwing airfoil with lower power consumption and better performance.Design/methodology/approach – Flow over the airfoil is investigated by CFD. At the airfoil solid walls, the no slip condition is applied. Re‐Normalization Group k‐e model is used for turbulence modeling. The pressure‐velocity coupling is...