XFOIL vs CFD performance predictions for high lift low Reynolds number airfoils

Blade Element Momentum (BEM) theory is an extensively used technique for calculation of propeller aerodynamic performance. With this method, the airfoil data needs to be as accurate as possible. At the same time, Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) is becoming increasingly popular in the design and optimization of devices that depend on aerodynamics. For fixed and rotary wing applications, the airfoil lift over drag coefficient is the dominant airfoil performance parameter. Selecting a suitable computational tool is crucial for the successful design and optimization of this ratio. The XFOIL code, the Shear Stress Transport k−ω turbulence model and a refurbished version of k−kl−ω transition model were used to predict the airfoil aerodynamic performance at low Reynolds numbers (around 2.0×105). It has been shown that the XFOIL code gives the overall best prediction results. Also, it is not clear that CFD turbulence models, even with boundary layer transition detection capability, can compute better airfoil performance predictions data.