Aerodynamics Overview

AE 440 Aircraft
Fall 2008

1
 Responsibilties
• External configuration of airfoil, wing geometry, and
fuselage for cruise, take-off and landing configurations—
to configuration.
• Component and total system lift-and-drag coefficient
relationships—drag polar.
• Develop model for lift & drag for cruise, turns, take-off
and landing—to performance.
• Estimate spanwise loads on wings—to structures.
• Wing lift and moment coefficients—to stability and
control.

2
 Presentation Outline
• Wings
– Geometry definitions/nomenclature
– Wing sweep and twist
– 3-D effects on lift-curve slope
– Induced drag
– Estimating CL,max

• Aerodynamic drag
– Definitions
– Drag build-ups
– ―Reference area‖ method

3
Geometry and Nomenclature

4
Wing Sweep and Twist
• Sweep
– Leading-edge for
supersonic flight
– Quarter-chord for subsonic
flight
• Geometric Twist
– Change in angle of
incidence from root to tip of
wing (called ―washout‖
when angle is less at tip)
– Ensures wing tip is last part
of wing to stall

5
Wing Effects
• The 3-D geometry of a wing
induces a 3-D flowfield, driven
by the difference in pressure
between the upper and lower
surface.
• Some effects of this 3-D
flowfield are:
– Reduction in lift-curve
slope.
– Reduction in Cl,max.
– Generation of induced
drag.
– Non-uniform distribution of
lift along the span.
– Downwash and induced
angle of attack.

6
 The Elliptical Wing
• Minimum induced drag occurs when lift is distributed
in elliptical fashion—i.e. elliptical wing planform
without twist or sweep

Prandtl Helmbolt

Cl AR
C L  CL  Cl
2
Cl Cl C 
1   l   AR 2
AR    

CL = Wing lift-curve slope

Cl = 2-D section lift-curve slope

7
The Elliptical Wing and Taper
• Difficult and
expensive to build
elliptical planform
• Use wing taper to
simulate spanwise lift
distribution of elliptical
wing

8
 Induced Drag
• Induced drag is ―drag due to lift‖ on a wing.
• It results from the angle of attack induced from the 3-D flowfield.
• For an elliptical wing:
CL2
CDi 
AR
• For a non-elliptical wing, we have introduced Oswald's Efficiency
Factor, eo
CL2
CDi 
eoAR
• So eo is a measure of the reduction in efficiency over the optimum
elliptical wing case.
• In other words, the elliptical lift distribution is optimum in terms of
induced drag.

9
 Estimating CL,max
• The wing CL,max is always less than the 2-D section Cl,max.
• Estimating CL,max for a wing is difficult.
• To do this accurately requires a understanding of how the wing
stalls—which is a function of many variables (airfoil section,
geometry, Reynolds number, Mach number, etc.)
• Raymer suggests

CL,max  0.9Cl ,max cos( 0.25c )

• For information on the effects of high-lift devices (i.e. slats and
flaps) on the 2-D sectional Cl refer to:
– Refer to Raymer pp. 321 to 327
– Refer to McCormick Chapter 3

10
 Estimating CL,max Increase
• The sectional Cl,max value is required to estimate
the wing CL,max, this is also true for the increase in
CL,max due to flaps.
• Raymer suggests the following approximation
 S flapped 
CL ,max  0.9Cl ,max   cos( H .L. )
 S 
 ref 

ΛH.L. = sweep of flap hinge-line

• This method requires an estimate

for the increase in the 2-D sectional Cl
due to the flap.
• Usually this is obtained from
experimental data, or correlations
as in Raymer Table 12.2.

11
 Aerodynamic Drag
• The drag of an aircraft is due to many sources, and sometimes different
terminology is used to describe these sources.
• The following definitions are taken from McCormick:
• Induced Drag: drag due to lift production (vortex system)
• Parasite Drag: total drag of an airplane minus induced drag
• Skin Friction Drag: drag resulting from viscous shear stress over a
wetted surface
• Form (pressure) Drag: drag resulting from integrated effect of static
pressure resolved in the drag direction
• Interference Drag: increase in drag resulting from two bodies in
proximity to each other (e.g. wing-fuselage junction)
• Trim Drag: drag resulting from aero forces required to trim the
airplane—(e.g. added induced and profile drag from the tail.)
• Profile Drag: total form and skin friction drag of 2-D airfoil section
• And still others: Cooling Drag, Base Drag, Wave Drag….

12
 Aerodynamic Drag Build-up
• The goal the aerodynamic modeling is to generate the lift-drag
polar for the aircraft in a given configuration (e.g. cruise, take-off,
turns, etc.)
• A common approach is to develop the parabolic drag polar:
CL2
CD  CDo 
eoAR
• We have already talked about the induced drag term and
Oswald’s efficiency factor. It is important to note the eo is really a
function of the configuration (e.g., flaps deployed, high wing vs.
low wing, etc.)
• The remaining term CDo is the total parasite drag on the aircraft
and must be estimated for the various sources: skin friction, form,
interference, trim, etc.
• Estimating the drag from these sources is the drag build-up.
• Refer to McCormick (Chapter 4) and Raymer (Chapter 12) for
more details.

13
 Drag Build-up Examples
• Example wing drag polar and parasite drag breakdown,
both taken from McCormick.

14
 Reference Area Drag Build-up Method
• The reference area drag build-up method is a way to simplify the
combination of various drag coefficients.
• The idea is to normalize the component drag coefficient by the
aircraft reference area (Sref).
• For example, the landing gear drag may be composed of a CD
based on the frontal area ALG, so this CD would be re-written as:
CD ALG
CD , LG 
S ref
• This value for CD,LG can then be added directly to CDo in the
parabolic drag polar equation.
• This provides a convenient way to combine the drag from various
components into the aircraft drag polar.

15
 Drag Build-up Example
• Example taken from McCormick, Table 4.4

16
Drag Build-up Example

CDo = 3.9 ft2/160 ft2 = 0.024

17
 References

• McCormick, B.W., Aerodynamics,

Aeronautics and Flight Mechanics, John
Wiley & Sons, 1979.

• Raymer, D.P., Aircraft Design: A

Conceptual Approach, AIAA Education
Series, J.A. Schetz, Ed., American
Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics,
Inc., Reston, VA, 4th Ed. 2006.
18