Quantifying the Aerodynamic Stall Point:A Computational Analysis of Angle of Attack on the Lift Coefficient of a Symmetrical Airfoil Using NASA FoilSim

ARNAV AHLAWAT

Amity International School Pushp Vihar, New Delhi, India

Abstract– Aerodynamic stall is one of the most critical limiting conditions in aircraft performance, marking the exact angle at which increasing the wing tilt no longer produces additional lift. This study investigates how systematically varying the Angle of Attack (AoA) affects the Lift Coefficient (CL) of aa symmetrical airfoil using the NASA FoilSim computational aerodynamic simulator. To isolate the effect of AoA exclusively, all other parameters were held constant throughout the simulation: airfoil camber at 0.0%, wing planform area at 100 m², airspeed at 150 km/h, and atmospheric altitude at 0 m under standard sea-level conditions. The AoA was incremented from 0° to 20° in steps of 2°, and the corresponding Lift Coefficient values were recorded at each step. Results confirm that CL increased in a near-linear fashion from 0° to 12°, in close agreement with classical thin airfoil theory for attached flow. Beyond 14°, the rate of increase diminished sharply, and CL peaked at 1.41 at 16° before declining, indicating the onset of airflow separation and aerodynamic stall. The aerodynamic stall point was therefore identified at approximately 16° AoA. These findings validate the original hypothesis and demonstrate the effectiveness of computational simulation tools for visualising and quantifying stall behaviour in a controlled, repeatable environment.