Numerical investigation of airfoil in ground proximity

The paper presents numerical investigation of the ground effect which affects an air flow when a craft's wing approaches the ground or sea surface. The effect has crucial significance for the wing-in-ground craft operation and decides about the purpose of building one at all. The two-dimensional viscous flow problem is solved and the results of calculations are presented. Furthermore, some most important issues related to the basics of an ekranoplan application are very briefly discussed. On the basis of numerical calculations, an empirical formula has been proposed for quantitative assessment of the chord dominated ground effect.