I. The flow of air and of an inviscid fluid around an elliptic cylinder and an aerofoil of infinite span, especially in the region of the forward stagnation point

Abstract

(1) A study of some of the characteristics of the two-dimensional flow around an aerofoil mounted in a wind tunnel has been made by L. W. Bryant and D. H. Williams. This work included measurements of velocity in the neighbourhood of the aerofoil, and showed that under certain conditions the theoretical law of Kutta and Joukowski can be applied in practice to an aerofoil. The flow pattern measured in the wind tunnel was also compared with that for an inviscid flow having an equal circulation. The purpose of the present paper is to examine, in detail, the relationship between the inviscid and the wind-tunnel flows at the nose of an elliptic cylinder and also of an aerofoil of infinite span. Throughout the paper the term circulation is used in the usual hydrodynamic sense, it being understood that for a wind-tunnel flow the contour is not taken too close to the boundary of the body. Attention has been focussed on the forward stagnation point, because it is a well-defined point on the surface where the pressure is a maximum.