Performance Augmentation of Wing through Fluidic Actuation

Abstract

Wingtip vortices are very significant facts in fluid dynamics and have been studied extensively in aerospace applications. These vortices are strongly associated with induced drag. The focus of this work is to numerically determine the lift and drag characteristics of a rectangular wing planform at various angles of attack, and determine the enhancements by introducing wingtip blowing. By effectively changing the blowing momentum coefficient, such jets can influence the strength, and location of the wingtip vortices, resulting in improved lift, reduced drag, and higher lift to drag ratio. The objective of this dissertation is to assess the possible aerodynamic benefits from blowing at wingtip of a rectangular 3-D NACA 0012 finite wing. Computational Fluid Dynamics software (Fluent) is used to numerically simulate the flow around a finite wing. Reynolds Averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) equations in conjunction with a k–є turbulent model were employed in this study. Geometry and mesh are created in ANSYS design modeler and ANSYS mesh, respectively. The jet slot area (Aj) is set as 0.02 m2 which spans 50% of the chord, and pressurized air is blown through the slot in the wing spanwise direction. Numerical results reveal that the strength of the vorticity is significantly reduced once blowing is done at the wingtip. Steady stream wise blowing near the tip creates inboard vortices which interact with the tip vortex and make it weaker.