Methods of Constructing Analytic Functions to Generate Airfoil Profiles

To facilitate the airfoil design, this paper studied the methods of constructing analytic functions to generate airfoil profiles. By Taylor series, Joukowsky airfoil function was simplified to a simple expression, and its coefficients and exponents were redefined as general constants. A series of simple airfoils can be generated by changing the assignment of the constants in the expression. Further, many complex airfoil images could be obtained by recombining upper profile functions and lower profile functions of other airfoils or by adding a number of thickness functions in the expression. Studies have shown that the structure of the expression is simple and the geometric meaning of the parameters in it is clear, which is suited for expressing airfoil shape; according to the parameter assignment rule summarized in this paper, the desired airfoil shape can be easily generated.