Experimental and computational fluid Dynamics analysis on aerodynamic Performance of non planar c wings

Abstract

In air transport, the operation cost is higher than the other transports due to the lower passenger/load-carrying capacity. One of the best ways to reduce the cost is reducing the fuel cost by increasing the weight carrying or lifting capacity of the airplane. The lifting capacity of the airplane is dependent on two aerodynamic forces namely Lift and Drag. Lift is a force that is used to pull the aircraft against gravity produced by the wing. Drag is the force counteracting the Lift produced by the viscous effect. Economical air transportation is highly influenced by aerodynamic efficiency which is the ratio of Lift to Drag (L/D). To reduce the operation cost, the aircraft should have higher aerodynamic efficiency. This will be achieved by implementing a novel aircraft design such that it increases Lift and reduces Drag. The major challenge for aerodynamic researchers is Drag reduction in commercial aircraft. The aircraft performance is highly affected by induced drag caused by wingtip vortices. Induced drag is an unavoidable result of lift production in the finite wing. Induced drag can be reduced by increasing the span of the wing. But due to higher structural weight and cost, the span should be limited. Other methods are placing wingtip devices such as Winglets and configuring wing with nonplanar wing concepts. The winglets which have been used are not more efficient at the subsonic flow due to the forces acting on it and it does not provide optimum aircraft performances at different phases of flight. In this research work, the use of a nonplanar C-wing concept has been considered for the study. To increase the aerodynamic efficiency of the monoplane configuration, the C-wing configuration is presented in this research. The aim is to prove, at all angles of attack, C-wing produces a high (L/D) ratio than straight wing for the same wetted surface area. The aerodynamic performance of a non-planar C-wing and straight wing having the same lifting area was compared for various parameters like lift, drag, induced drag, and lift to drag ratio for different angles newline newline newline