Commercial aircraft performance improvement using winglets

Abstract

Aerodynamic drag force breakdown of a typical transport aircraft shows that lift-induced drag can amount to as much as 40% of 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 wing-tip devices. By applying several types of winglets, which are already used on commercial airplanes, we study their influence on aircraft performance. Numerical investigation of five configurations of winglets is described and preliminary indications of their aerodynamic performance are provided. Moreover, using advanced multi-objective design optimization software an optimal one-parameter winglet configuration was determined that simultaneously minimizes drag and maximizes lift.

Keywords

• winglet
• bionics
• computational fluid dynamics
• drag reduction
• lift-induced drag
• optimization