Effects of Taper Ratio on Aircraft Wing Aerodynamic Parameters: A Comperative Study

Year 2019, Volume: 3 Issue: 1, 18 - 23, 20.03.2019

İbrahim Halil Güzelbey , Yüksel Eraslan , Mehmet Hanifi Doğru

https://doi.org/10.26701/ems.487516

Cited By: 5

Abstract

Wing design is one of the most important tasks for a designer to overcome during an aircraft design process. Therefore, a designer need to optimize so many wing geometrical parameters with the aim of obtaining an efficient wing geometry complying with requirements of the design. Taper ratio is one of these parameters, which is the ratio of root and tip chord lengths of a wing. In this study, firstly, a high aspect ratio rectangular aircraft wing was numerically investigated in terms of some aerodynamic parameters including induced drag coefficient, Oswald efficiency factor and lift coefficient together with its span-wise distribution by means of XFLR5 computational fluid dynamics program. The assessment of mesh accuracy of the program was done at the beginning of the analyses. Later on, with the aim of observing the effects of taper ratio on aircraft wing aerodynamic parameters, the revised versions of the wing, which have the taper ratios from 0.2 to 1.2 (with the increment of 0.2) were analyzed. In conclusion, depending on the analyses results, the wings having different taper ratios were compared in terms of obtained aerodynamic parameters and span-wise lift distributions. Moreover, tip vortices of each wing, together with their sizes, were obtained and also compared.

Keywords

Aircraft wing design, taper ratio, lift distribution, induced drag coefficient

References

• Gudmundsson, S. (2013) General aviation aircraft design: Applied Methods and Procedures. Butterworth-Heinemann.
• Raymer, D.P. (2012). Aircraft design: a conceptual approach, AIAA Education Series. Reston, Virginia.
• Sadraey, M.H. (2012). Aircraft design: A systems engineering approach. John Wiley & Sons.
• Bergmann, A., Huebner, A., and Loeser, T. (2008). Experimental and numerical research on the aerodynamics of unsteady moving aircraft. Progress in Aerospace Sciences, 2008. 44(2): p. 121-137. Doi:10.1016/j.paerosci.2007.10.006
• Della Vecchia, P., Malgieri, D., Nicolosi, F., De Marco, A. (2017). Numerical analysis of propeller effects on wing aerodynamic: tip mounted and distributed propulsion. Transportation research procedia, 2018. 29: p. 106-115.
• Bravo-Mosquera, P.D., Cerón-Muñoz, H.D., Díaz-Vázquez, G., Catalano, F.M. (2018). Conceptual design and CFD analysis of a new prototype of agricultural aircraft. Aerospace Science and Technology, 2018. 80: p. 156-176, Doi: 10.1016/j.ast.2018.07.014.
• Qin, N., Vavalle, A., Moigne A.L. (2005). Moigne, Spanwise Lift Distribution for Blended Wing Body Aircraft. Journal of aircraft, 2005. 42(2): p. 356-365. Doi:10.2514/1.4229.
• Lee, T., and Gerontakos, P. (2006). Effect of winglet dihedral on a tip vortex. Journal of Aircraft, 2006. 43(1): p. 117-124. Doi:10.2514/1.14052.
• Wakayama, S., and Kroo, I. (1995). Subsonic wing planform design using multidisciplinary optimization. Journal of Aircraft, 1995. 32(4): p. 746-753. Doi:10.2514/3.46786.
• Nelson, C. P. (1992). Effects of wing planform on HSCT off-design aerodynamics. in 10th Applied Aerodynamics Conference. 1992. Doi:10.2514/6.1992-269
• Chen, T. and J. Katz (2004). Induced Drag of High-Aspect Ratio Wings. in 42nd AIAA Aerospace Sciences Meeting and Exhibit. Doi:10.2514/6.2004-38
• Güzelbey, İ.H., Eraslan, Y., and Doğru, M.H. (2018). Numerical Investigation of Different Airfoils at Low Reynolds Number in terms of Aerodynamic Performance of Sailplanes by using XFLR5. The Black Sea Journal of Sciences. 8(1): p. 47-65. Doi:10.31466/kfbd.423932
• Deperrois, A. (2009). XFLR5 Analysis of foils and wings operating at low Reynolds numbers. Guidelines for XFLR5.
• Thomas, F. and J. Milgram (1999). Fundamentals of sailplane design. Vol. 3. College Park Press, College Park, Maryland.
• Administration, F.A. (2007). Glider Flying Handbook. Skyhorse Publishing Inc.
• Frati, S. (1946). The Glider. Editore Ulrico Hoepli Milano, Milan, Italy.