Traditional winglets are designed as fixed devices attached at the tips of the wings. The primary purpose of the winglets is to reduce the lift-induced drag, therefore improving aircraft performance and fuel efficiency. However, because winglets are fixed surfaces, they cannot be used to control lift-induced drag reductions or to obtain the largest lift-induced drag reductions at different flight conditions (take-off, climb, cruise, loitering, descent, approach, landing, and so on). In this work, we propose the use of variable cant angle winglets which could potentially allow aircraft to get the best all-around performance (in terms of lift-induced drag reduction), at different flight phases. By using computational fluid dynamics, we study the influence of the winglet cant angle and sweep angle on the performance of a benchmark wing at Mach numbers of 0.3 and 0.8395. The results obtained demonstrate that by adjusting the cant angle, the aerodynamic performance can be improved at different flight conditions.

In aeronautical engineering, drag reduction constitutes a challenge and there is room for improvement and innovative developments. The drag breakdown of a typical transport aircraft shows that the lift-induced drag can amount to as much as 40% of the total drag at cruise conditions and 80–90% of the total drag in take-off configuration. One way of reducing lift-induced drag is by using wingtip devices. By applying biomimetic abstraction of the principle behind a birdʼs wingtip feathers, we study spiroid wingtips, which look like an extended blended wingtip that bends upward by 360 degrees to form a large rigid ribbon. The numerical investigation of such a wingtip device is described and preliminary indications of its aerodynamic performance are provided.

Winglets are commonly used drag-reduction and fuel-saving technologies in today’s aviation. The primary purpose of the winglets is to reduce the lift-induced drag, therefore improving fuel efficiency and aircraft performance. Traditional winglets are designed as fixed devices attached at the tips of the wings. However, because they are fixed surfaces, they give their best lift-induced drag reduction at a single design point. In this work, we propose the use of variable cant angle winglets which could potentially allow aircraft to get the best all-around performance (in terms of lift-induced drag reduction), at different angle-of-attack values. By using computational fluid dynamics, we study the influence of the winglet cant angle and sweep angle in the performance of a benchmark wing at a Mach number of 0.8395. The results obtained demonstrate that by carefully adjusting the cant angle, the aerodynamic performance can be improved at different angles of attack.

Airfoils generate lift in engineering applications such as for airplanes, wind turbines, automotive spoilers, etc. For accurate CFD analysis of airfoils, the quality of the mesh is of paramount importance, especially when dealing with turbulent flows commonly encountered in real life applications. Currently there are different tools that are available to improve the quality of the mesh required for CFD studies. This paper describes a study to assess the significant of the quality of the mesh on CFD analyses of NACA 23012 airfoil by using selected open source tools. The turbulence is modeled using the well-known k-ω Shear Stress Transport model. For validation, results have been compared with experimental datasets which were obtained from “TAG Stuttgart #1” tunnel. ABSTRAK: Sayap pesawat dapat menghasilkan daya angkat dalam aplikasi kejuruteraan seperti kapal terbang, turbin angin, spoiler automotif, dan sebagainya. Kualiti pada jaringan adalah amat penting bagi mendapatkan analisa CFD yang tepat pada sayap pesawat, terutamanya apabila berhadapan situasi aliran turbulen sebenar. Pada masa ini terdapat pelbagai perisian bagi meningkatkan mutu jaringan dalam kajian CFD. Kertas kerja ini membentangkan satu kajian bagi menilai kepentingan kualiti jaringan pada analisis CFD bagi sayap pesawat NACA 23012 dengan menggunakan sumber terpilih perisian terbuka. Model turbulen dibangunkan mengguna pakai model k-ω Shear Stress Transport (SST) yang terkenal. Bagi pengesahan, keputusan uji kaji telah dibandingkan dengan set data yang diperoleh dari terowong "TAG Stuttgart #1”."

Linear stability analysis of an elastically anchored flat plate in a uniform flow is investigated both analytically and numerically. The analytical formulation explicitly takes into account the effect of the wake on the plate by means of Theodorsen's theory. Three different parameters non-trivially rule the observed dynamics: mass density ratio between plate and fluid, spring elastic constant, and distance between the plate center of mass and the spring anchor point on the plate. We found relationships between these parameters which rule the transition between stable equilibrium and fluttering. The shape of the resulting marginal curve has been successfully verified by high Reynolds number numerical simulations. Finally, the limiting case corresponding to a simply supported rigid rod is also analyzed and the resulting flapping instability traced back to a simple resonance condition. Our findings are of interest in applications related to energy harvesting by fluid-structure interaction, a problem that has recently attracted a great deal of attention. The main aim in that context is to identify the optimal physical/geometrical system configuration leading to large sustained motion, which is the source of energy one aims to extract.