Aerodynamic Optimization of Box Wing – A Case Study

Abstract

The optimization of a possible medium range box wing commercial airliner is presented in three stages. Preliminary research is used to determine various parameters for a potential box wing model, and a baseline model is designed in Autodesk Inventor, based upon the cantilever Airbus A330-200, an aircraft of a similar role. The Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) software used in this project is Dassault Systèmes SolidWorks, which is validated through comparing the NACA 0009 airfoil lift and drag polars with published results. The first stage of optimization is performed on the airfoil shape, with 8 different designs being tested against the cantilever model. The lift to drag ratios of each model are calculated at cruise conditions, Mach 0.85 and 11,000 meters altitude. The most efficient model with the highest lift to drag ratio is then taken to the second stage of optimization, winglet height, where 7 different winglet heights are tested on the model: 5%, 10%, 15%, 20%, 25%, 30%, and 35% of the span. The most efficient model out of the different winglet heights is then tested with 7 different aspect ratios: 5%, 10%, 15%, 20%, 25%, 30%, and 35%. The expectation of the three stages of optimization is to provide a box wing model that performs significantly better than the original base line model, and also has an improved lift to drag ratio when compared to the cantilever model.