NLF Airfoil. Natural laminar flow airfoil validation

Thomas Fitzgibbon
By Thomas Fitzgibbon Published 25 March 2026
Aerospace
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NLF Airfoil — Flow360 validation

The NLF(1)-0412 airfoil is a benchmark for validating boundary-layer transition modeling, critical for predicting laminar flow extent and drag on modern wings. Flow360 is validated across an alpha sweep (-6° to 15°) using Spalart–Allmaras with transition model at Mach 0.1, Re = 4e6. Integrated loads and skin friction distributions are compared against experimental data and reference CFD codes (OVERFLOW, FUN3D).

External reference data
Experiment: Somers, D. M., [NASA TP-1861, 1981]( OVEFLOW SA-AFT reference data: [AIAA 2019-0039](https://arc.aiaa.org/doi/10.2514/6.2019-0039) OVERFLOW, FUN3D γ-Reθ reference data: [AIAA 2022-3679](https://arc.aiaa.org/doi/abs/10.2514/6.2022-3679)
ntrs.nasa.gov/citations/19810015487
Validation plots

Comparison of Flow360 predictions against reference data. Click an image to expand.

CL vs Alpha (-6° to 15°)
CL vs Alpha (-6° to 15°)
CL vs CD (-6° to 15°)
CL vs CD (-6° to 15°)
Cf vs x/c (Alpha = 5°)
Cf vs x/c (Alpha = 5°)
Solver performance

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