Drag reduction in aircraft model using Elliptical winglet

Abstract

Aerodynamic characteristics for the aircraft model with NACA (National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics) wing No. 65- 3-218 have been studied using subsonic wind tunnel of 1000 mm x 1000 mm rectangular test section and 2500 mm long of Aerodynamics Laboratory Faculty of Engineering (Universiti Putra Malaysia). Six components wind tunnel balance is used for measuring lift, drag and pitching moment. Tests are conducted on the aircraft model with and without winglet of two configurations at Reynolds numbers 1.7 x 105, 2.1 x 105, and 2.5 x 105. Lift curve slope increases more with the addition of the elliptical winglet and at the same time the drag decreases more for the aircraft model with elliptical shaped winglet giving an edge over the aircraft model without winglet as far as Lift/Drag ratio for the elliptical winglet is considered. Elliptical winglet of configuration 2 (Winglet inclination 600) has, overall, the best performance, giving about 6% increase in lift curve slope as compared to without winglet and it is giving the best lift/drag ratio.