• Transactions of Materials Processing
• /
• v.23 no.8
• /
• pp.482-488
• /
• 2014

Flexible forming technology has advantages in sheet metal forming, because it can be implemented to produce various shaped molds using a single apparatus. Due to this advantage, it is possible to apply it to the manufacture of an aircraft winglet mold. Presently, most aircraft winglets are manufactured from composite materials. Therefore, the mold for the curing process is an essential element in the fabrication of such composite materials. Compared to conventional mold forming, flexible forming has some advantages such as reduced manufacturing cost and uniformity of mold thickness. If the thickness of the mold is consistent, then the heat transfer will occur uniformly during the curing process leading to improved formability of the composite material. In the current study, numerical simulations were performed to investigate the possibility of flexible forming for manufacturing of the winglet mold. In order to match the size of the actual product, the shape of objective surface was divided to fit the dimensions of the apparatus. The results from the numerical simulations are compared with the objective surface to verify the accuracy. In conclusion, the current study confirms the feasibility and the potential to manufacture winglet molds by flexible forming.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Aeronautical & Space Sciences
• /
• v.49 no.4
• /
• pp.273-279
• /
• 2021

Winglets are specialized wingtip devices to reduce induced drag, and they have been installed on Boeing-made aircraft since the 1980s, Airbus has also developed a winglet named 'Sharklet' since 2009 and has started providing them as an option to the A320 Family. The winglet has the effect of improving take-off performance, reducing fuel consumption, increasing payload, and increasing flight distance by reducing the induced drag generated at the tip of the wing. The purpose of this study is to analyze the actual flight data of the sharklet-installed and non-sharklet-installed models of the A321 aircraft to verify the fuel efficiency improvement due to the winglet installation, and to analyze the economic analysis accordingly. Through this, it can be used to determine the winglet installation when introducing an aircraft or to make a decision for upgrading the existing aircraft. To this end, a case study on the aerodynamic characteristics and effects of the winglet installation was conducted, and the economic analysis was verified.

• Advances in aircraft and spacecraft science
• /
• v.8 no.4
• /
• pp.303-330
• /
• 2021

The paper discusses the effect of the winglets on the aerodynamic and aeroacoustic performance of Boeing 737-800 aircraft by numerical approach. For this purpose, computational fluid dynamics and fluent commercial software are used to solve the compressible flow governing equations. The RANS method and the K-ω SST turbulence model are selected to simulate the subsonic flow around the wing with acceptable accuracy and low computational cost. The main variables of steady flow around the simple and blended wing in constant atmospheric conditions are computed by numerical solution of governing equations. The solution of the acoustic field has also been accomplished by the broad-band acoustic source model. The results reveal that adding a blended winglet increases the pressure difference near the wingtip,which increases the lift force. Also, the blended winglet reduces the power and magnitude of vorticities around the wingtip, which reduces the wing's drag force. The effects of winglets on aerodynamic forces lead to a 3.8% increase in flight range and a 3.6% increase in the maximum payload of the aircraft. Also, the acoustic power level variables on the surfaces and fields around the wing have been investigated integrally and locally.

• Journal of the Korea Convergence Society
• /
• v.12 no.2
• /
• pp.215-219
• /
• 2021

The flow analyses around the wing of airplane installed with winglet or sharkelt were carried out in this study. At the model without winglet, it can be seen that the air flows beside the wing and the flow is concentrated at the end of wing. At the model of winglet or sharklet, the pressure on the bottom of the wing happens to be lower in the wide area than for model without winglet. At the analysis result, the air flowing next to the wing can be seen to go over and rotates over the main wing. The model with the sharklet shows that the flow rate is the fastest. In case of model with sharklet, it is thought that the maximum total pressure of flow is distributed at the bottom of the wing, which can further improve the lift force of the wing. It is thought that the analysis results in this study on the air flow due to the configuration of aircraft edge wing can be helped at its convergent research.

• 한국전산유체공학회:학술대회논문집
• /
• 2009.04a
• /
• pp.39-42
• /
• 2009

The aerodynamic characteristics of aircraft winglet with structural deformation was investigated using the static FSI(Fluid-Structure Interaction) system. The system, comprised of CAD, CFD, CSD, VSI, and grid regeneration modules, was constructed. In the process VSI, grid regeneration, and integration modules were developed to combine CSD and CFD modules. As a test model, KC-135A, the double winglet suggested by Whitcomb, was selected and its aerodynamic characteristics for the rigid and deformable models was calculated by applying the static FSI system. As a result, the lift and drag coefficients of test models were reduced to 11% and 1.3%, respectively.

• Aerospace Engineering and Technology
• /
• v.7 no.1
• /
• pp.24-29
• /
• 2008

Aircraft fuel efficiency is one of main concerns to aircraft manufacturers and to aviation companies because jet fuel price has tripled in last ten years. One of simple and effective methods to increase fuel efficiency is to reduce aircraft induced drag by using of wingtip devices. Induced drag is closely related to the circulation distribution, which produces strong wingtip vortex behind the tip of a finite wing. Wingtip devices including winglets can be successfully applied to reduce induced drag by wingtip vortex mitigation. Winglet design, however, is very complicated process and has to consider many parameters including installation position, height, taper ratio, sweepback, airfoil, toe-out angle and cant angle of winglets. In current research, different shapes of winglets are compared in the view of vortex mitigation. Appropriately designed winglets are proved to mitigate wingtip vortex and to increase lift to drag ratio. Also, the results show that winglets are more efficient than wingtip extension. That is the reason B-747-400 and B-737-800 chose winglets instead of a span increase to increase payload and range. Drag polar comparison chart is presented to show that minimum drag is increased by viscous drag of winglet, but at high lift, total drag is reduced by induced drag decrease. So, winglets are more efficient for aircraft that cruises at a high lift condition, which generates very strong wingtip vortex.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Aviation and Aeronautics
• /
• v.29 no.3
• /
• pp.44-51
• /
• 2021

PIP is an abbreviation of 'Performance Improvement Package', which is a package that can improve performance by applying some design changes to existing aircraft. Boeing provides PIP applicable to B777-200, and Airbus provides PIP applicable to A350-900 as standard. PIP provided by Boeing and Airbus is a separate task, but it is expected to reduce fuel consumption by reducing drag through aerodynamic improvements. The PIP applied to the A350-900 includes work such as increasing Winglet Height and re-twisting Outboard Wing. This study is to verify the effect of PIP application of the A350-900 aircraft and use it as basic data for economic analysis. The aerodynamic improvement studies and expected effects of the PIP application were examined, and the actual flight data of the PIP-applied and the non-applied aircraft were compared to confirm the PIP application effect. This paper provides empirical results for the aviation industry on the PIP application efficiency as a method of improving fuel efficiency and reducing carbon emission.

• Advances in aircraft and spacecraft science
• /
• v.10 no.2
• /
• pp.107-125
• /
• 2023

Drag reduction is significant research in aircraft design due to its effect on the cost of operation and carbon footprint reduction. Aircraft currently use conventional solid winglets to reduce the induced drag, adding extra structural weight. Fluidic on-demand winglets can effectively reduce drag for low-speed flight regimes without adding any extra weight. These utilize the spanwise airflow from the wingtips using hydraulic actuators to create jets that negate tip vortices. This study develops a computational model to investigate fluidic on-demand winglets. The well-validated computational model is applied to investigate the effect of injection velocity and angle on the aerodynamic coefficients of a rectangular wing. Further, the turbulence parameters such as turbulent kinetic energy (TKE) and turbulent dissipation rate are studied in detail at various velocity injections and at an angle of 30°. The results show that the increase in injection velocity shifted the vortex core away from the wing tip and the increase in injection angle shifted the vortex core in the vertical direction. Further, it was found that a 30° injection is efficient among all injection velocities and highly efficient at a velocity ratio of 3. This technology can be adopted in any aircraft, effectively working at various angles of attack. The culmination of this study is that the implementation of fluidic winglets leads to a significant reduction in drag at low speeds for low aspect ratio wings.

• The Journal of the Acoustical Society of Korea
• /
• v.43 no.1
• /
• pp.103-111
• /
• 2024

Axial-flow fans are used to transport fluids in relatively low-pressure flow regimes, and a variety of design variables are employed. The tip geometry of an axial fan plays a dominant role in its flow and noise performance, and two of the most prominent flow phenomena are the tip vortex and the tip leakage vortex that occur at the tip of the blade. Various studies have been conducted to control these three-dimensional flow structures, and winglet geometries have been developed in the aircraft field to suppress wingtip vortices and increase efficiency. In this study, a numerical and experimental study was conducted to analyze the effect of winglet geometry applied to an axial fan blade for an air conditioner outdoor unit. The unsteady Reynolds-Averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) equation and the FfocwsWilliams and Hawkings (FW-H) equation were numerically solved based on computational fluid dynamics techniques to analyze the three-dimensional flow structure and flow noise numerically, and the validity of the numerical method was verified by comparison with experimental results. The differences in the formation of tip vortex and tip leakage vortex depending on the winglet geometry were compared through a three-dimensional flow field, and the resulting aerodynamic performance was quantitatively compared. In addition, the effect of winglet geometry on flow noise was evaluated by numerically simulating noise based on the predicted flow field. A prototype of the target fan model was built, and flow and noise experiments were conducted to evaluate the actual performance quantitatively.

• Advances in aircraft and spacecraft science
• /
• v.10 no.2
• /
• pp.141-158
• /
• 2023

In current research work, the aerodynamics performance of a newly designed large flying V aircraft is numerically investigated. Three Flying V configurations, with V-angles of 50°, 70° and 90° that represent the minimum, moderate, and maximum configurations respectively, were designed and modeled to assess their aerodynamic performance at cruise flight conditions. The unstructured mesh was developed using ICEM CFD and Ansys-Fluent was used as an aerodynamic solver. The developed models were numerically simulated at cruise flight conditions with a Mach number equal to 0.15. K-ω SST turbulence model was chosen to account for flow turbulence.The authors performed steady flow simulations.The results obtained from the experimentation reveal that the maximum main angle configuration of 90° had the highest C_Lmax value of 0.46 compared to other configurations. While the drag coefficient remained the same for all three configurations, the 50° V-angle configuration achieved the maximum stall angle of 35°. With limited stall delay benefits, the flying V possesses no sufficient stability, due to the flow separation detected at whole elevon and winglet suction side areas at AoA equal and higher than 30°.