Performance comparison of different winglets by CFD

Abstract

Induced drag is one of the major drag forces created in the finite wing of an aircraft. It is generated due to the pressure variation of the upper and lower portion of the wing. This drag leads to more fuel consumption and reduces speed and range of an aircraft. Winglet is a wingtip device which can reduce induced drag by reducing the pressure gradient at the wingtip of the wing. Several types of winglets have been introduced so far. The primary focus of this study is to investigate the performances of different types of winglets on a straight rectangular wing at subsonic cruise condition of flight. A rectangular wing of NACA 2412 airfoil and different types of winglets are designed by SolidWorks software and the wing models are analyzed by ANSYS Fluent software. Coefficients of lift, coefficients of drag and lift to drag ratios are measured at different angle of attacks of the wing with and without the winglets. Then comparison is carried out among them. It is found that all winglet mounted wing models provide higher lift coefficients, lower drag coefficients and higher lift to drag ratios than the wing model without winglet. Moreover, raked winglet yields the best lift to drag ratio at low angle of attacks but blended winglet with 45° cant angle provides the highest lift to drag ratio at high angle of attacks.