Abstract :
The author presents a numerical method for obtaining the lift coefficient of wing sections by introducing a random walk algorithm. The phenomenon of migrating fluid fronts in filter paper around macroscopic obstacles leads to a numerical model of unsteady potential flow the author calls “random walk source model”. The shape of the migrating fluid fronts simulated in the random walk model tells the history of the path of fluid particles leading them to the front, and thus carrying the information about the lift coefficient of the passed wing section. He studied the migration of simulated fluid fronts around Joukowsky profiles whose lift coefficient is known, and compares the theoretical given lift coefficient with the numerically determined value, resulting from the random walk experiment. Even though the contour of the Joukowsky profile is approximately by only 100 to 200 pixel units, it is possible to predict the lift coefficient with an accuracy of 10%.
