DRAG REDUCTION METHODS

Four main types of drag are encountered in aerodynamicsNamely skin-friction drag, form drag, wave drag, induced
drag.
The methods in use for reduction for the reduction of each
type of drag are discussed in turn
1. REDUCTION OF SKIN- FRICTION DRAG
In broad terms skin-friction drag can be reduced in one of the
two ways. Either laminar flow is maintained by postponing
transition, this is so called laminar- flow technology , or
ways to found to reduce the surface shear stress generated
by the turbulent boundary layer.
The laminar-flow can be maintained passively by prolonging
the favorable constant-pressure region over the wing
surface. Active control of transition requires the use of
suction, either distributed or through discrete span wise slots.
Often the suction is used in conjunction with the favorable
pressure distributions. The basic principle of maintaining
laminar flow by means of suction has been known for at least
thirty five to forty years. However, he problems with the
practical implementation on aircraft, either real or perceptual,
have prevented the wide spread of the technology. It seems
increasingly likely, however, that the considerable gains in
efficiency which would result from the use of laminar -flow

technology ,will ensure that it will be much more widely

exploited on commercial aircraft in the near future .Other
methods for maintaining laminar-flow have been
developed ,but as yet, have not been seriously considered
seriously for practical application in aviation.
A moderately effective method for reducing turbulent flow
friction which has been developed in the resent years
involves minute modification of the surfaces, so that they are
covered with riblets .Riblets can take any forms, but
essentially consist of stream wise ridges and valleys, as
shown. These triangular shaped riblets are available in the
form of film. The optimum non-dimensional spacing for the
riblets is given by

S=s

This corresponds to the actual spacing of 0.025 to 0.075 mm

for flight conditions. This 3M riblet film has been tested on an
in-service air bus a 300-600 and in other aircrafts. The
skin friction drag reduction observed as of the order of 5 to 8
percent and the skin-friction drag 30 to 40% of the total
aircraft drag .Thus the overall drag reduction is modest but
,nevertheless, represents a very considerable economic
benefit with little in the way of a penalty .It is very likely ,
therefore , that riblets will be widely used on commercial

aircraft In the future .

The basic concept behind riblets had many
origins, but it is probably the work at NASA
Langley in the USA, which led to the present
developments .he concept, was also discovered
independently
in Germany through study of
hydrodynamics of rib let like formations on shark
scales
A plausible explanation for the effect of riblets is
that they interfere with the near wall structure of
the turbulent boundary layer in the region where
the turbulence is mainly generated .The flow field
in the turbulent boundary layer is highly complex,
but the form of near wall structures has been
elucidated in the seminal study of Kline et al at
Stanford university.
It appeared from this work that hairpin vortices
form near wall as shown these vortices then
continue to grow until a point is reached when the
head is violently ejected away from the wall and,
simultaneously, the contra-rotating stream wise
o`riented branches of the vortices come together,
inducing a powerful downwash of high-momentum
fluid between the vortices towards the wall. This
sequence of events constitutes what is termed a
near =wall burst.

The riblets act as barriers which prevent the free span wise
movement of the hairpin vortices .It is thought that
owing to this the vortices cannot approach each
other closely thereby weakening the near wall
bursting process. It should be noted, however, that
this explanation is not universally accepted
2. REDUCTION OF FORM DRAG

Form drag is kept to minimum by preventing boundary-layer

separation. Streamlining is vitally important for reducing form
drag. It is worth nothing that at high Reynoldss numbers a
circular cylinder has roughly the same overall drag as a
streamlined aerofoil with a chord length equal to 100 cylinder
radii. Form drag is overwhelmingly the main contribution to
the overall drag for bluff bodies like cylinder, whereas the
predominant contribution in the case of the streamlined body
is skin-friction drag, form drag being less than ten percent of
the overall drag .For bluff bodies even minimal streamlining
can be very effective.
3.REDUCTION OF INDUCED DRAG
Induced drag falls as the aspect ratio of the wing is
increased .It was also shown that for a given aspect ratio
elliptic-shaped wings have the lowest induced drag. Over the
past fifteen years the winglet has been developed as a
device fro reducing induced drag without increasing aspect

ratio .Typical example is illustrated in the figure .winglets of

this type have now been fitted too much type of commercial
aircraft.
The physical principle behind the winglet is illustrated in the
figure. On all sub-sonic wings there is a tendency for a
secondary flow to develop from the high-pressure region
below the wing round the wing tip to the relatively low
pressure region on the upper surface. This is the part of the
process of forming the trailing vortices if a winglet of the
appropriate design and orientation is fitted to the wing-tip,
the secondary flow causes the winglet to be at an effective
angle of incidence, giving rise to lift and drag components
Lw and Dw relative to the winglet, as shown in the figure.
Both Lw and Dw have components in the direction of the
drag of the aircraft as a whole .Lw provides a component
counter to the aircraft drag , while Dw provides a component
which augement the aircraft drag.for a well-designed winglet
the contribution of Lw predominates , resulting in a net
eduction in overall drag , or thrust,equal to delta T
4.REDUCTION OF WAVE DRAG
To some extent in the discussion of supercritical aerofoil, it
was found that keeping the pressure uniform over the upper
wing surface minimized the shock strength, thereby reducing
the wave drag. A somewhat similar principle holds for the
wing-body combination of transonic aircraft. This was

encapsulated in the area rule formulated by Whitcomb. It

was known that as a wing-body combination passed through
the speed of sound of sound, the conventional straight
fuselage, shown in the figure., experienced a sharp rise in
wave drag. Whitcomb showed that this rise in drag could be
considered reduced if the fuselage was Waisted as shown in
the figure, in such a way as to keep the total cross-sectional
area of the wing-body combination constant. Waisted
fuselages of this type are now a common feature of aircraft
designed for transonic operation.