Numerical Investigation of Blended and Raked Winglets Characteristics

Abstract

This research compares the efficiency of various winglet designs to reduce lift-induced drag by altering the amount and distribution of vortices at the wingtip and with changes to the baseline wing's aerodynamic properties. To explore the three-dimensional flow and vortex formation around the half wing, computational simulations utilizing the Reynolds Averaged Navier-Stokes equations and the K-SST turbulence model were run using Ansys Fluent R19.2. The simulation demonstrates that there is a significant correlation between the wing's lift, drag, and pitching moment, as well as the size of the tip vortex. The redesigned wing works distributes the vortices and minimizes drag. It was observed that optimizing the winglet tips was essential for increasing the lift coefficient while lowering the contributions of frictional and vortex drag components. It was observed that the lift increased with the winglet tips, the increase in frictional drag caused by the wetted surface area is a barrier to aerodynamic efficiency. The findings indicate that the chevron-type tips is best in reducing drag. It is outperformed by wings without chevron winglets in terms of lift-to-drag ratio. It is determined that chevron tips are the best winglet as their aerodynamic efficiency is essential for increasing flight range and endurance. Overall, it is observed that winglets are more efficient at lower aspect ratios and that a moderate aspect ratio of 10 offers the greatest increase in aerodynamic efficiency.