The drag coefficient and the laminar-to-turbulent transition for the aerofoil component of a wing model are optimised using an adaptive upper surface with two actuation points. The effects of the new shaped aerofoils on the global drag coefficient of the wing model are also studied. The aerofoil was optimised with an 'in-house' genetic algorithm program coupled with a cubic spline aerofoil shape reconstruction and XFoil 6.96 open-source aerodynamic solver. The wing model analysis was performed with the open-source solver XFLR5 and the 3D Panel Method was used for the aerodynamic calculation. The results of the aerofoil optimisation indicate improvements of both the drag coefficient and transition delay of 2% to 4%. These improvements in the aerofoil characteristics affect the global drag of the wing model, reducing it by up to 2%. The analyses were conducted for a single Reynolds number and speed over a range of angles of attack. The same cases will also be used in the experimental testing of the manufactured morphing wing model.
A new wing-tip concept with morphing upper surface and interchangeable conventional and morphing ailerons was designed, manufactured, bench and wind-tunnel tested. The development of this wing-tip model was performed in the frame of an international CRIAQ project, and the purpose was to demonstrate the wing upper surface and aileron morphing capabilities in improving the wing-tip aerodynamic performances. During numerical optimisation with ‘in-house’ genetic algorithm software, and during wind-tunnel experimental tests, it was demonstrated that the air-flow laminarity over the wing skin was promoted, and the laminar flow was extended with up to 9% of the chord. Drag coefficient reduction of up to 9% was obtained when the morphing aileron was introduced.
The lifting-line theory is widely used for obtaining aerodynamic performance results in various engineering fields, from aircraft conceptual design to wind-power generation. Many different models were proposed, each tailored for a specific purpose, thus having a rather narrow applicability range. This paper presents a general lifting-line model capable of accurately analysing a wide range of engineering problems involving lifting surfaces, both steady-state and unsteady cases. It can be used for lifting surface with sweep, dihedral, twisting and winglets and includes features such as non-linear viscous corrections, unsteady and quasi-steady force calculation, stable wake relaxation through fictitious time marching and wake stretching and dissipation. Possible applications include wing design for low-speed aircraft and unmanned aerial vehicles, the study of high-frequency avian flapping flight or wind-turbine blade design and analysis. Several validation studies are performed, both steady-state and unsteady, the method showing good agreement with experimental data or numerical results obtained with more computationally expensive methods.
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