Aerodynamic Analysis of C-Wing Aircraft

Abstract

In the recent years, the researchers focused on the development of long-range aircraft with the commercial aid of nonconventional design concepts. The C-wing concepts for large aircraft are highly preferred to overcome the design constraints such as span, aspect ratio, and compatibility. The span efficiency of the C-wing is approximately equal to that of the closed wing and hence a greater reduction in vortex drag is obtained than in the case of the planar wing. The flutter speed characteristics of the C-wing are investigated using Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) solver and the C-wing is retrofitted to the A340-200 aircrafts. In the CFD analysis the Navier Stroke equations are obtained as governing equations and structural vibration frequency is calculated by a Computational Structural Dynamics (CSD) solver. In addition, multi-grid technique is used to compute the aerodynamic forces with better accuracy. The proposed aeroelastic analysis consists of a partial coupling of CFD and CSD solvers. In the aerodynamic analysis, theoretical results show that there is a 20% of drag reduction for the C-wing as compared to the conventional wing. The numerical results for the sections of the C-wing are validated by using the experimental results of the NACA report.

Keywords

• Flutter
• CFD/CSD
• C-wing
• Horizontal winglet
• Multigrid technique