Design and computational fluid dynamics analysis of an idealized modern wingsuit

The aerodynamics of a modern wingsuit has been the subject of very few detailed scientific studies to date. The prevailing design process remains the dangerous “sew and fly” method, in which designs are tested when they are first flown. This study utilizes the Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) tools to analyze the flow field and aerodynamics of an idealized wingsuit, which is designed employing the Computer-Aided Design (CAD) modeling. The 3D CAD software Autodesk Inventor is used to create the wingsuit model, which is designed with a Gottingen 228 airfoil cross-section and a relatively large planform of aspect ratio 1.3. The commercial flow solver ANSYS Fluent is employed to solve the steady Reynolds-Averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) equations with a turbulence model. The wingsuit is assumed to be flying at a free-stream velocity of 45 m/s, corresponding to a Reynolds number of 5.5×10⁶. Computations showed that the wingsuit had a maximum lift coefficient of 2.73 and reached a stall angle of 47°. The wingsuit was found to be statically stable for angles of attack higher than 18° where the angle of attack indicating the onset of the stable region depended on the physiology of the flyer. The lack of experimental data for wingsuit flight in the literature made the validation of CFD results difficult to achieve. Nevertheless, the results of the 3D wingsuit were thoroughly analyzed and compared to those for rectangular flat plate wings of similar aspect ratio at the same Reynolds number. The results compared well and indicated that the designed wingsuit should perform well aerodynamically under typical wingsuit flying conditions. This study paves the way for practical wingsuit designs for commercial use.