AERODYNAMIC ANALYSIS OF VARIABLE CANT

ANGLE WINGLETS FOR IMPROVED AIRCRAFT

PERFORMANCE
A Project Report
Submitted By
DESAI KATHAN 151280101007
SHAH KANTHIL 151280101016
PARMAR KARAN 151280101028
PINDORIA VIPUL 151280101042

In the partial fulfillment for the award of degree

of
BACHELOR OF ENGINEERING
In
Aeronautical Engineering

APOLLO INSTITUTE OF ENGINEERING,

ENASAN, AHMEDABAD.
Gujarat Technological University, Ahmedabad.
2018-19

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 APOLLO INSTITUTE OF ENGINEERING,
ENASAN, AHMEDABAD.
2018-19
Certificate

Date:

This is to confirm that the project entitled “Aerodynamics Analysis of Variable Cant
Angle Winglets for Improved Aircraft Performance” has been effectuate by “ Desai
Kathan (151280101007), Shah Kanthil (151280101016), Parmar Karan
(151280101028), Pindoria Vipul (151280101042) ” under my guidance in fulfilment of
the degree of bachelor of engineering in aeronautical engineering (7th semester) of Gujarat
technological university, Ahmedabad during the annual year 2018-19.

Internal Guide: Head of Dept:

Prof. Chaina Ram Dhagla Ram Prof. Sandeep Kumar
Prof. Aeronautical Engineering HOD: Aeronautical Engineering

External Examiner:
Name:

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 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

Date:

We Have Great honour To Present the Project on the Subject “AERODYNAMIC

ANALYSIS OF VARIABLE CANT ANGLE WINGLETS FOR

IMPROVED AIRCRAFT PERFORMANCE” as the user defined project
(UDP) for Gujarat technological university.

We are grateful to our honourable principal for his efforts to make our project perfect by
giving his guidelines to improve our project work.

We are grateful to our mentor “Prof. Chaina Ram Dhagla Ram” for his important
guidance in our project work.

We are also thankful to whole aeronautical engineering staff of “ Apollo Institute of

Engineering” Enasan, Ahmedabad.

DESAI KATHAN 151280101007

SHAH KANTHIL 151280101016

PARMAR KARAN 151280101028

PINDORIA VIPUL 151280101042

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 TABLE OF CONTENT

CHAPTER-1 INTRODUCTION…………………………………………...07
1.1 COMONENTS OF WINGLET………………………………….09
1.2 NEED FOR CANT ANGLE WINGLETS………………………10
1.3 APPLICATIONS OF WINGLETS……………………………...11
1.3.1 HOMEBUILT AIRCRAFT……………………………11
1.3.2 BUISNESS AIRCRAFT……………………………….11
1.3.3 WIND TURBINE ROTOR BLADES…………………12
1.4 TYPES OF WINGLETS………………………………………...13
1.4.1 CONTROLLABLE WINGLETS……………………...14
1.4.2 MULTIPLE WINGLET……………………………….15
1.4.3 ARTICULATING WINGLETS……………………….17
1.4.4 BLENDED WINGLET………………………………..18
1.4.5 SPIROID WINGLETS………………………………...20
1.4.6 CANTED WINGLET………………………………….21

CHAPTER-2 LITERATURE REVIEW…………………………………....23

CHAPTER-3 MATHAMETICAL MODELLING…………………………28

3.1 METHAMETICAL MODELLING……………………………..28

3.2 TURBULENCE MODELS……………………………………...29

CHAPTER-4 MODELLING AND MESHING……………………………30

4.1 GEOMETRY GENERATION…………………………………..30

4.2 MESHING……………………………………………………….32

CHAPTER-5 PARAMETERS……………………………………………..34

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CHAPTER-6 RESULT AND ANALYSIS………………………………...35

CHAPTER-7 G.I STUDY ………………………………………………....38

7.1 G.I STUDY.……………………………………………………..38

7.2 COMPARISION……………….………………………………..40

CHAPTER-8 TURBULENCE MODEL…………………………………...41

CHAPTER-9 SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION...…………………….…42

9.1 SUMMARY...…………………………………………………...42
9.2 CONCLUSION.…………………………………………………43

REFERENCE………………………………………………………………44

Abbreviations:
 Cl: Co-efficient of lift.
 Cd: Co-efficient of drag.
 AoA: Angle of Attack.
 L: Lift Force.
 D: Drag Force.
 NACA: National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics
 G.I: Grid Integration.

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ABSTRACT
The drag induced is defined as the drag on part of an aerofoil of the aircraft produced
by the formation flight. Here the properties of aircraft are highly shattered by the
development of drag induced which is nothing but the result of the vortices at the tip of a
wing. Here the wingtip vortices are nothing but the formation of the round type of pattern
of air left behind at the wing tip which creates lift force due to air pressure differences. Now
to minimize the vortex formation WINGLETS are used which are vertical plates or angled
extended part at aircraft wingtip section. The experimental tests are carried out by analysing
the wing of the rectangle (prototype) using the CFD (computational fluids dynamics) which
is done on the wings with winglets and without winglets. The reason for it is to compare
the aerodynamic properties and to check the functioning of winglet at various AOA at cant
angle 30, 45, 60.
In the experiment, the stream velocity is taken as 35 m/s at the sea-level conditions
in the wind tunnel of a closed loop. An ANSYS CFX using the FVM in CFD it was done
at subsonic flow. Fixed winglets don’t give good aircraft results at different phases of flight
because the aircraft aerodynamics properties such as lift, Drag coefficients and L/D ratio
were compared and found that properties of each winglet differ from each other at a
particular angle of attack. The section of the aerofoil is taken as NACA 653218 where first
no tells us the series number, last two digits as a thickness of it in percentage.

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CHAPTER 1

Introduction
The high raised prices of aviation fuel and the environmental issues the world is
facing in the current time, for example, global warming which has forced the manufactures
and the entire commercial airliners to find out the way for environmental issues in a sector
of aviation. The solution of it to be found out by ideally improving fuel usage capacity of
airplanes at different flight phases such as take-off, climb, cruise, landing etc. the aircraft
efficiency during flight phases can be improved by aircraft design configurations making
it efficient or minimize fuel consumption per seat-miles.

When talked about the aircraft performance fuel efficiency and design configuration
are main considerations. During different flight phases, we can improve the performance
of aircraft by making useful changes in design configuration making it more efficient or
reducing the fuel consumption per seat-miles are considered much desirable.

Now the fuel consumption of an aircraft can be improved by reducing the drag
induced at a tip of the wing. To minimize induce drag at wingtips winglets are used.
Winglets can be introduced as the shaped vertical plates or an angled extension located at
the wingtip of the aircraft. They look like the small fins. Winglets better the effect of aircraft
efficiency by minimizing the drag induced by the vortices at the wing tip. Using the
winglets at the tip of the wing thus improves the L/D ratio.

Winglets provide very good results for the jets aircraft by lowering the drag
components. By throttling back to the normal speed and by saving the amount of fuel many
users take benefits of minimizing the drag. Without contributing towards the loads
(structural) the winglets functions by an increment in the wing AP.

The idea of winglets was developed by one British engineer Frederick William
Lanchester making development in the field of automotive and aerodynamics in year 1800s.
Lanchester started to learn Aeronautics with serious in the year 1982, eleven years before
a first successful flight. The result of his inventions proved that drag at the tip of a wing
can be minimized by attaching vertical plate surface at tip under the high lift conditions.
The idea of “Endplates” came into action in the year 1897. However, the concept was not

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very accurate and up to the mark because there was very much flow separation in its
invented design at the cruise conditions which was thus creating profile drag.

Now to overcome the problem of profile drag by placing vertical surface was tried
to resolve by scientists. Then one scientist named Richard. T. Whitcomb who was an
aeronautical engineer at Langley research center (NASA), in the year 1974 installed
vertically like fins and performed an experiment on it. The results of its performed
experiment summarized that almost vertical plates can counter or lower the power of
wingtip vortices if the design is made accurately.

If the experiments using the conventional winglets are done it resulted in providing
maximum drag reduction and changed L/D ratio only for the cruise conditions. While
during the non-cruise conditions the vertical like wing surfaces called winglet provides less
good aircraft properties and fuel efficiency while take-off, landing, and climb are not good.
Now to counter such results winglets design must be good enough to function for both
phases of flight i.e. cruise and non-cruise conditions. In the recent year's invention has
been done to better such problem of winglet design in order to fasten the performance of
the flight. But the winglets design which can alter cant angle is less experimented or
worked.

Fig .1 Winglets Reduce Induce Drag Components.

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1.1 COMPONENTS OF WINGLETS

There are major three types of components of the winglet which are as follow:

 Winglet
 TACS(load alleviation element)
 Wing extension

Winglets of an aircraft are itself considered as the component which is used to

minimize drag induced by the vortices at the wingtip.

TACS means the load alleviation element which is lying at the extended part to the
vertical winglets. The function of the TACS appears same like small ailerons, moving up
and down. They are made of the aluminium material. By processing automatically it serves
by minimizing loads (bending) to each winglet.

Wing extension is nothing but the stretched space at the end of the wingtip where
the winglets are connected with the wings of an aircraft.

Fig 1.1 Components of winglets

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1.2 NEED FOR CANT ANGLE WINGLETS

Cant angled winglets is nothing but the angle between wing and winglet surface.
Winglets are defined as the vertical plates or angled extension located at wing tip of the
aircraft wing to reduce drag induced by the vortices at a tip of wings. The air pressure at
the downside of a surface is greater while there is low air pressure at the upper surface of
the wing. Now as due to high air pressure at down and low air pressure at an upper part of
wing results into the turbulence or vortices at a tip of a wing. Vortex is a miniature tornado
formed when flowing of air across both surfaces contacts at a tip of a wing. The vortices
formed by the large aircraft are strong enough and can flip the smaller plane which is flying
close to large planes. So by installing the winglets on wingtip thus helps in reducing the
vortices to a minimum which results in reducing the induced drag creation and thus gives
better fuel efficiency to an aircraft. It can also give the improved L/D ratio by making longer
wings. Cant angle winglets provide good properties than the fixed winglet.

FIG 1.2 Wing tip with and without winglets

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1.3 APPLICATIONS OF WINGLETS

 HOMEBUILT AIRCRAFT
 BUSINESS AIRCRAFT
 EXPERIMENTAL AIRCRAFT
 AIRLINERS
 WIND TURBINES ROTOR BLADE

1.3.1 HOMEBUILT AIRCRAFT:

It is considered that the first flight with the winglet on it, is totally home built model
invented by B. Rutan making it first flight even before the winglet flight test done by
American body. In construction of homebuilt aircraft it first used the glass-reinforced
plastic composites material and simply the winglet was fabricated.

FIG 1.3.1 Home built aircraft called Rutan variEze

1.3.2 BUSINESS AIRCRAFT

Now the first commercial aircraft to use the concept of winglet was the LaserJet.
On commercial aircrafts such as military or civilian it tested the first ever use of winglets.

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The plan was just for the prototype experiment aircraft but performance resulted in
production from the LaserJet. Winglets of it thus help to increase about 6.5 % in range and
better the directional stability.

FIG 1.3.2 LaserJet 28/29 first to utilize winglets in commercial plane

1.3.3 WIND TURBINE ROTOR BLADES

First, of the wind turbines, rotor blades are the components device of the windmills.
Windmill simply converts the energy of the coming air into the rotational energy with the
help of the blades. This rotational energy means the kinetic energy. The windmills also
consist of the generators. The energy from the wind transmits kinetic energy through
rotational energy to turn the shaft coupling rotor blades to the gearbox or directly to the
generators.

Then the generators convert the mechanical energy to the electrical energy. To make
sure that the wind power remains one permanent usable source one should make his efforts
to improve the energy output efficiency improving size, configurations, and capacity of
wind turbines.

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USE OF WINGLET IN WIND TURBINES ROTOR BLADES

One of the better ways to do modification in the field of a windmill is by introducing

the wing tip device called WINGLET at the wingtip of turbines rotor blades. Generally, the
winglets can be installed to improve an overall efficiency of wind turbines. Generation of
flow separation at rotor blade tip is minimized hence minimizing drag induced. Hence
summarized explanation tells us that using winglets on wind turbines helps to minimize the
drag induced thus by improving overall efficiency.

Fig 1.3.3 Wind turbine with Winglet

1.4 TYPES OF WINGLETS

 CONTROLLABLE WINGLETS
 MULTIPLE WINGLETS

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  ARTICULATING WINGLETS
 BLENDED WINGLETS
 SPIROID WINGLETS
 CANTED WINGLETS

1.4.1 CONTROLLABLE WINGLETS

The inventor of the controllable winglets is M. Sankrithi. The concept of the

controllable winglet was first patented by the giant company of America Boeing in late
1997 by the involvement of the shape memory alloys (SMA) which is helpful in changing
the shape in the response to the thermal energy [1]. The main abstract of this is the systems
and method is providing variation in geometry of winglets. The controllable winglets
consist of the base portion fitted to the wing which is also including the wing portion. The
wing portion consists of at least one control surface which is deflectable, (SMA) bending
plates and the bending tubes.

The body portion makes an upwards angle when the base portion is connected or
attached to the wing. The winglet uses the actuators for deflecting the wing control surface.
Generally, the idea of the system and the methods provide us with the variable winglets
geometry. In the response of the different or variable geometry of winglets, it changes the
conformation of their airflows surface. However, the variable geometry of winglets is used
to maximize the fuel efficiency of the aircraft for both the condition whether it’s a cruise
and non-cruise conditions. Moreover, the variable geometry winglets are also capable of
changing their conformation to reduce wind loads, such as wing loads associated with high
maneuver load and high gust load conditions. Reduce wing loads may lead to weight
savings as structural redundancies in the wings may be reduced. Hence by using the
variable geometry winglets system and method, it is used in reducing the weight of the
aircraft and hence maximize fuel efficiency with a reduction in CO2.

Reducing the wing loads may be leading to saving the structural weight. The
variation in geometry of vertical surface also creates lower loads (bending) on the wing
than on it that do not have variable geometry. Finally, certain embodiments of the variable
geometry winglets may reversibly reduce the total wingspan of an aircraft while it is on the
ground. Thus, the aircraft may meet existing gate clearance requirements while benefiting
from maximized wingspan and winglets during flight.

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 Hence this invention of controllable winglets led to the systems and methods for
providing the winglets and for providing the winglets for the more enhanced aircraft
performance.

Fig 1.4.1 Controllable winglet

1.4.2 MULTIPLE WINGLETS

The main objective in the conventional type winglet was to reduce the wingtip
vortices. So like the conventional winglet, these winglets uses the multiples airfoils to
recycle the most of the energy of wingtip vortices thus helps in producing the lift and thrust.
Simply reducing the drag. The retractable multiple winglets were invented by the Roger.
H. Grant of the United States in order to achieve such results [Refrence 3]. The use of the
multiple winglets on the wing was to reuse much of the energy vanished by the vortices
formed at an edge of the wingtip and this concept was patented in the year 2006. For high
AOA the L/D ratio will be improved. Each wingtips shape are designed accordingly and

15
especially which helps in an easy mechanism of extending outwards and in also in the
mechanism of the retracting. The special thing about it is that it can operate not only for the
continuous supply of airspeed and angle of attack but to avoid the formation of the parasite
drag it can also operate or function at the high speeds.

The parasite drag is nothing but the drag resulting when the object moves through
the fluid medium. It's a combination of the skin friction, form and Interference drag.
Making the wing fully retractable the amount of the extension will become longer and large
enough for varying airspeeds and different angle of attacks throughout the flight envelope.
One major problem was coming for the aircraft flying at the low angle of attacks and for
low airspeeds is the induced drag that is induced at the wingtip. This problem was solved
for reducing the induced drag by attaching the fixed winglet at wingtip but there was
another problem created which was a formation of parasite drag due to the increase in the
wetted area of the wing.

The result was coming in favour of anyone advantage and that is it is beneficial for
high speed and low-speed efficiency or one has to sacrifice for another. Hence there comes
a solution of multiple winglets, a device which was beneficial in reducing the wingtip
vortices at low speeds or high angles of attack while being able to retract for high speeds
or low AOA. In the addition to this invention if the degree of the invented extension is
varied for continuum through the various airspeeds and angle of attack this invention would
be even more beneficial to operate and use.

These winglets will be partially and fully retractable on a continuum based on the
optimum setting for the angle of attack or speed. This can potentially optimize their
performance for high speed, low speed and every point in between. It can also be useful to
high-performance aircraft that have to manoeuvre throughout a spread range of airspeeds
and AOA.

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 Fig 1.4.2 Retractable Multiple Winglets

1.4.3 ARTICULATING WINGLETS

The ‘Articulating Winglets’ is one of the unique and innovative concepts which has
the mechanism of folding winglets at the tip of the wing [4]. The construction of the
foldable winglets is importantly joined with the aircraft wings and it can be rotated during
the flight between the extremely extended conditions as well as in the retracted positions.
When the airplane is on the ground the winglets are at the vertical folded position because
during ground travel there is little space during the time of parking so to make spacious its
folded. Now when an aircraft after take-off when comes in the cruise condition the vertical
lied winglets are highly or fully extended making longer wingspan. This extension of
foldable winglet extended out by the use of actuators mechanism.

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 Now when winglets are extended along the wingspan then it creates an increase in
span area of a wing which thus helps the wing in creating the extra additional lift force.
Hence longer wings give large lift. This folding of winglets is done automatically or
manually by the pilot. The results of this actions thus help in increasing the aerodynamic
efficiencies of the aircraft as well as its serving to give the reduced bending moment acting
on the aircraft. In the airports because of the small or reduced space of hangar and even
because of reducing the size of the flight deck the aircraft are told to fold the wings.
Generally, the foldable winglets concepts are widely used in the fighters aircraft. It is also
found that the extension of winglets at some angle can harm the remaining portion of the
wings which can affect the flight characteristics of the aircraft.

The study has found that by employing vertically downwardly extending tip fins, it
is possible to increase the angle of attack operating a range of an aircraft. At high AOA, the
tip fins extend approx 90° to the inboard wing part. The commercial aircraft are known for
using the foldable wing tip which is helpful in reducing the landing space occupied by the
aircraft on the ground.

Fig 1.4.3 Foldable Winglets

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1.4.4 BLENDED WINGLET

Now as we know that using the winglet thus helps in reducing the formation of
induced drag at the wingtip of the aircraft but there also lies the disadvantage of the
interference drag. The interference drag is nothing but the drag which is caused by the joints
of components of aircrafts such as the wing joined with the fuselage creates interference
drag at junctions. The blended winglets were invented to get the minimum amount of the
induced drag during the flight of an aircraft [5]. The blended winglets are attached with the
wing with the sharp curve between the wing and winglet. The sharp curves thus help the
structure from the type of interference drag. Many companies worked on the same
invention. Like the Boeing company named the winglet as the ‘Blended winglets’ and
another giant company named as the ‘Shark let’ blended winglets.

Shark let can help us reduce the fuel burn by up to 4% over the longer sectors. In
the year 2002, the aviation giants Boeing tested blended winglets on its model reducing the
fuel consumption by almost 4 % to 6 %. This type of winglets helps the aircraft in saving
fuel and reducing the emission. For the model 767 airplane, it is saving ½ million of the
U.S. gallons of the jets' fuel a year per airplane which gives a yearly reduction of more than
4790 tonnes of CO2 for each airplane. The drag induced by part of the aircraft drag due to
effects of forming lift. Now due to this difference in air pressure, it creates a vortex at the
tip so by putting blended winglet at the tip section gives reduced induced drag and as it has
a sharply curved surface at the junction it helps to reduce the interference drag too. Giant
companies are collecting data on winglets which are blended since they first started flying
airplanes mounted with the changes in 2001.

Relaying on the aircraft, its goods, airlines routes and other factors it can:

• Reduce engine maintenance cost

• Increase better cruise altitude power

• Lowers operating costs

• Reduce fuel consumption by 4-6 %

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 Fig 1.4.4 Blended Winglet

1.4.5 SPIROID WINGLETS

The drag reduction is the main criteria of every aviation giants. The spiroidal type
[7] of the wing consist of the spiroidal tip device which basically consists of the wing-like
lifting surface is developed so it can minimize the effect of the formation of induced drag
which is of the wing-spiroid combination or to alleviate the noise effect with the
concentrated vortices wakes that trails from lifting surface. At the appropriate sweeps and
induce angle the ends of the spiroid are attached with the wing tip to form the closed and
continuous extension with wing surface. The spiroid on the R.H.S of opp hand to the left
side for the fixed winged aircraft. The geometry of spiroid incorporates sections of an
aerofoil with special camber, thickness, and twist. The inventions of ‘SPIROIDAL
WINGLETS’ is done by the Louis B. Gratzer in the year back in 1991.

Most generally the spiroidal-tipped winglets are used for the application such as the
in case of reducing the drag and also for noise reduction for the wings or wing-like devices
as a propeller of helicopters, etc including the non-aeronautical applications.

20
 FIG 1.4.5 Spiroidal Winglets

1.4.6 CANTED WINGLETS

The canted winglet was first to use by the Boeing Company in one of its aircraft
model called 747 which was announced in the year 1985. The use of canted winglet just
provided impressive results which can increase the range of aircraft by simply 3.5%. Now
because of the increasing problem of the high prices of aviation fuel and the environmental
issues like the global warming, it’s required to find out the solution or alternative solution
to these problems. Now aircraft companies are trying to improve aircraft performance and
consumption of fuel per seat-miles. Hereby improving and researching on design
configuration, it’s been tried to reduce many aspects such as drag. Now there is a formation
of inducing drag on wingtip due to vortex flow.

Now to reduce drag vertical plate of fin-like is placed at the tip (wing) of the aircraft.
This vertical fin-like structure is nothing but called winglet. Here the cant angle is nothing
but the angle between the surface of the wing and vertical surface of winglet simply angle
between winglet and wing. The properties of the fixed-wing were not optimum for different
flight phases. So by implementing the use of canted winglet on aircraft, we get different
properties of lift, drag coefficients, and lift-to-drag-ratios. So it’s concluded that at different
canted angles 30, 45, 60 and 90 we can achieve results which are beneficial for different
flight phases.

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FIG 1.4.6 Canted Winglet

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Chapter 2

Literature Review
A detailed survey of experimental and CFD data of aerodynamic analysis of the
variable cant angled winglet was carried out, the reviews of said data is presented below.

Dinesh Myilsamy, Yokesh Thirumalai and Premkumar P.S published their work of
Performance Investigation of an Aircraft Wing at Various Cant Angles of Winglets using
CFD Simulation in Altair Technology Conference in 2015. The key parameter that they
were interested in was co-efficient of lift, co-efficient of drag and angle of attack.

This study includes NACA 4412 aerofoil coordinates for the wing design and the
winglet with the blended design. The design process is carried out in CATIA-V5. Flow
features of the entire wing including winglet were examined at different cant angles of
winglets varying from 0°, 30°& 90° degrees at different angles of attack from -2° to 10°.
Discretization and the CFD simulation has been carried out through AcuSolve, and the
Post-processing results are obtained using AcuProbe and AcuFieldview.

Observation have been made that among the cases of this study, wings with winglets
produces higher Co-efficient of lift/Co-efficient of drag ratio performance than the normal
aircraft wing without winglets. By increasing degree of angle of attack and by further
increasing to higher angle of attack its performance getting lower. The above mentioned
concept of variable angle winglets appears to be a good alternative for improving the
aerodynamic efficiency of an aircraft. An efficient winglet design with at a certain cant
angle will exponentially yield a better performance of an aircraft by lowering the induced
drag which causes wing tip vortices. The general improved aerodynamic efficiency will
result in reduced fuel consumption. Although performance characteristic achieved with
winglets are only a few percent, such small differences can be of great profit to any airline
industry. Analytical studies concluded that aircraft with variable winglets, viz., low cant
angles at low angles of attack and relatively high cant angles at high angles of attack, could
give better performance during take-off and landing.

Dr. Basawaraj, K Prateekkumar R Kotegar, Lokesh. M. H experimented with

various shape of winglet and presented their result in International Journal of Engineering
Research and Technology (IJERT).

23
 The NACA-65(3)-218 is chosen as a clean wing and the computational results are
validated with the experimental results. The experimental data is obtained from the journal
drag analysis of an Aircraft Wing Model with and without bird feather like Winglet
conducted by Altaf Hussain, Ata A.K.M. P. Iqbal, M. Ariffin, and M. Mazian. The
unstructured mesh is constructed with the prism layer meshing using ICEM CFD and the
grid independence study has conducted to know the optimum mesh size for all the three
wing configuration of clean wing (NACA-65(3)-218), wing with rake winglet and the wing
with L-winglet. The RANS (Reynolds averaged Navier stokes equation) numerical studies
have conducted by the finite volume method to analyse the physical system modelled.
Fluent is used as a common solver for analysing the physical model. The new design
changes are implemented with two types of winglets attached at the end of the clean wing.
The rake winglet and the L-winglet are used for the computational analysis. The analysis
is carried out at the different angles of attack such as - 40, 00, +80, +160 and +180 at an
inlet velocity of 32m/s with the adiabatic conditions. The obtained results shows that the
rake winglet performs better than clean wing at the angles of attack of 8° with the L/D ratio
of 8 and the L-winglets performs better than clean and rake winglet at the angles of attack
of 8 with L/D ration of 10.

Gianluca Amendola, Ignazio Dimino, and Antonio Concilio conducted research on

Preliminary Design Process for an Adaptive Winglet and published the work done in
International Journal of Mechanical Engineering and Robotics Research Vol. 7.

Here the paper deals with the designing of a morphing winglet for an operational
aircraft. By improving aircraft’s aerodynamic efficiency in non-design flight conditions,
the morphing winglet is expected to operate during long (cruise) and short (climb and
descent) mission phases to reduce aircraft drag and optimize lift distribution, while
providing better results in roll and yaw control capability. The designed system is designed
to face different flight situations by a correct action on the movable parts represented by
two independent and asynchronous control surfaces with variable camber and variable
settings. A pair of acceptable electromechanical actuators are fitted within the limited space
inside the winglet structure, capable of holding prescribed deflections for long time
operations. Such a solution shows the risks associated with critical failure cases like
jamming, loss of WL control with beneficial impacts on aircraft’s safety. Mathematical
details on the system construction and ability to cope with the typical mission loads profiles

24
are given, along with a description of the conceptual analysis and the expected system
performance according to a suitable metric.

In conclusion system has the potential to reduce the induced drag more than a
conventional fixed winglet. A fault tolerant concept based on two individual
(asynchronous) control surfaces (upper and lower) was investigated with the purpose to
achieve variable camber and differential tab settings. Focus was given to the kinematic
design of the morphing surfaces through multi-body simulations to validate the double shaft
concept, the integration of the finger-like morphing rib architecture into the structure and
the aeroelastic computation of the flutter speed with different winglet mass values.

Sayed Shamsul Alam Reza, Sk. Tahmid Muhatashin Fuyad, Md. Aminul Islam,
Dewan Hasan Ahmed did the Numerical Study of Wing with Winglets for Different Cant
Angle and published it in Journal of Mechanical and Mechanics Engineering.

A detailed 3D numerical study has been carried out for Clark Y aerofoil to find the
lift and drag coefficient for different cant angles over a wide range of Reynolds number or
Mach number. The aerodynamic characteristics of lift coefficient, drag coefficient, and lift-
to-drag ratio are compared and its miles found that every winglet configuration at a specific
Mach variety had special CL, CD, L/D values, indicating that constant winglets do not
provide optimum aircraft performance at different levels of flight.

3D numerical simulations are carried out for Clark Y aerofoil to investigate the fluid
flow characteristics over the aerofoil. A winglet is included in the aerofoil and varied the
cant angle. Simulation results showed that the varying the cant angle of the winglet has
significant influence on drag and lift for subsonic flow conditions. It is also observed that
cant angle 30o produces maximum lift to drag ratio which is an important aspects for the
aircraft. However, lower cant angle leads to have higher drag coefficient and also higher
lift coefficient. Therefore, the changes of cant angle may lead to better performance of the
aircraft.

Joel E. Guerrero, Dario Maestro, Alessandro Bottaro studied Biomimetic spiroid

winglets for lift and drag control and presented their work in Elsevier Science.

Here, drag breakdown of a typical transport aircraft shows that the lift-induced drag
can amount to as much as 40% of the total drag at cruise conditions and 80-90% of the total
drag in take-off configuration. To reduce lift-induced drag, one method is by using wingtip

25
devices. By applying biomimetic abstraction of the principle behind a bird’s wingtip
feathers, they studied spiroid wingtips, which look like an extended blended wingtip that
bends upward by 360 degrees to form a large rigid ribbon.

P. Bourdin, A. Gatto, and M. I. Friswell studied the effects of Aircraft Control via
Variable Cant-Angle Winglets and published their work in Journal of Aircraft Vol. 45.

Here the paper summarizes a novel method for the control of morphing aircraft’s
winglet. The idea is a pair of winglets with variable cant angle, independently actuated and
fitted at the tips of a baseline flying wing. The idea behind this philosophy was that for
specific flight conditions such as a coordinated turn, the use of two control devices would
be sufficient for adequate control. Computations with a VLM and also wind-tunnel tests
demonstrate the viability of the concept, with individual and/or dual winglet deflection
producing multi-axis coupled control moments. Difference between the experimental and
computational results showed reasonable to good agreement, with the major changes
thought to be due to wind-tunnel model aero elastic effects.

The available concept of variable cant angle winglets appears to be a promising

alternative to conventional control surfaces such as ailerons, elevators, and rudders as far
as basic manoeuvres are concerned. However, although numerical studies, backed up by
experimental data, and suggested that enough roll and pitch should be effected by the
variable-cant-angle winglet concept, its direct comparison with conventional control
surfaces still has to be made in terms of attainable moment magnitudes. Preliminary flight
tests conducted with an RC model showed qualitative evidence of a roll rate at least
comparable, if not superior, to that generated by a pair of conventional ailerons. As far as
lateral control is concerned, it has been found that the generated roll control moments are
proportional to the lift coefficient, thus making the concept most effective at very low
speed. Theoretically potential for the application of adjustable winglets would be for
surveillance aircraft, for which enhanced low-speed manoeuvrability is required.
Numerical and experimental studies on a flying wing configuration showed that such
adjustable winglets enable control moments about multiple axes, forming a highly coupled
flight control system, which form a decoupled control system. In terms of applications,
however, a single pair of adjustable winglets cannot substitute for all the conventional
control surfaces at the same time if one wants a full control envelope. Indeed, numerical
simulations showed that one can achieve a trimmed level turn (i.e., pitching, rolling, and

26
yawing moments are zeroed out while in banked flight) with a single pair of adjustable
winglets as sole control effectors, but only for a specific turn radius. To access a continuous
range of turn radii with adjustable winglets as control effectors, one has to combine their
action with a third effector such as elevators. An alternative could be to use a second pair
of adjustable winglets to control the aircraft in pitch without elevators: with four
independent multi-axis effectors, the system is then over actuated, leading to some
redundancy in the flight control system, which could be exploited to optimize secondary
objectives (e.g., minimum drag, minimum bending moment) at fixed lift and/or moments.

M. J. Smith, N. Komerath, R. Ames, O. Wong did research in Performance Analysis

of a Wing with Multiple Winglet. It studied the potential of multi-winglets for the reduction
of induced drag without increasing the span of aircraft wings.

Wind tunnel structure were made using a NACA 0012 aerofoil section for the
untwisted, rectangular wing and flat plates for the winglets. Experiments were conducted
on configurations of Reynolds numbers from 161,000 to 300,000. Wind tunnel data
provided lift and drag measurements, and laser flow visualization obtained wingtip vortex
information. The Cobalt60 unstructured solver generated flow simulations of the
experimental configuration via solution of the Euler equations of motion. The data shows
that some multi winglet configurations reduced the wing induced drag and improved L/D
by 15-30% compared with the baseline 0012 wing. An increase occurs in lift curve slope
with dihedral spread of winglets set at zero incidence relative to the wing. Dihedral spread
also distributes the tip vortex. These observations supplement previous results on drag
reduction due to lift reorientation with twisted winglets set at negative incidence.

Negative incidence and twist of the winglets improves L/D by re-orienting the
winglet lift vector forward and thus cancelling part of the drag. Flat plate winglets at zero
incidence improve the lift curve slope, and produce more lift than an equivalent area of the
baseline wing. Dihedral area of the winglets improves lift by taking some of the winglets
away from the wing plane, and redistributing the tip vortex into multiple vortices that do
not mix in the close wake, thereby reducing the effective downwash drag at the wing plane.

27
CHAPTER 3

Mathematical Modelling

3.1 GOVERNING EQUATIONS

Here, to solve the problem of turbulent flow over the wing with winglet the
Reynolds Averaged Navier Stokes (RANS) equations coupled with a turbulence model was
used.

CONTINUITY EQUATION:

𝜕(𝜌𝜇) 𝜕(𝜌𝑣) 𝜕(𝜌𝜔)

+ + =0
𝜕𝑥 𝜕𝑦 𝜕𝑧

MOMENTUM EQUATION:

𝜕 𝜕 𝜕𝑝 𝜕𝜏𝑖𝑗 𝜕
(𝜌𝑢𝑖 ) + (𝜌𝑢𝑖 𝑢𝑗 ) = − + + (−𝜌𝑢
̅̅̅̅̅̅̅)
𝑖 𝑢𝑗 + 𝑓𝑖
𝜕𝑡 𝜕𝑥𝑗 𝜕𝑥𝑖 𝜕𝑥𝑗 𝜕𝑥𝑗

3.2 TURBULENCE MODELS

The turbulence model used for this study is described below in detail.

RANS MODEL

Reynolds Averaged Navier Strokes (RANS) model was used to solve the case.
RANS or Reynolds Averaged Navier Strokes equations are time averaged equations of
motion for fluid flow.

The concept of the equations is Reynolds decomposition, whereby an instantaneous

quantity is decomposed into its time-averaged and fluctuating quantities, this idea was first
developed by Osborne Reynolds. The RANS equations are generally used to
describe turbulent flows.

28
 These equations can be used with approximations based on knowledge of the
properties of flow turbulence to give approximate time-averaged solutions to the Navier–
Stokes equations. For a model of stationary, incompressible Newtonian fluid, these
equations can be written in Einstein notation in Cartesian coordinate as:

𝜕𝑢𝑗 𝜕 𝜕𝑢𝑖 𝜕𝑢𝑗

𝜌𝑢𝑗 = 𝜌𝑓𝑖 + [−𝑝𝛿𝑖𝑗 + 𝜇 ( + ) − ̅̅̅̅̅̅̅]
𝜌𝑢𝑖 𝑢𝑗
𝜕𝑥𝑗 𝜕𝑥𝑗 𝜕𝑥𝑗 𝜕𝑥𝑖

The left part of the above equation shows the relative change in momentum of fluid
element owing to the unsteadiness in the mean flow and the convection by the mean flow.
This change is counter by the mean body force, the isotropic stress owing to the mean
pressure field, the viscous stresses, and apparent stress -𝜌𝑢𝑖 𝑢𝑗 owing to the fluctuating
velocity field, generally referred to as the Reynolds stress. This nonlinear Reynolds stress
term requires additional modeling to close the RANS equation for solving, and has led to
the creation of many different turbulence models.

29
CHAPTER 4

Modelling and Meshing

4.1 GEOMETRY GENERATION

The wing and winglet geometries were modelled in SolidWorks 18. The aerofoil
used to model the wing and winglet is 6-digit NACA series, NACA 653218. The aerofoil
cross section is shown in the figure.

Figure 4.1.1 NACA 653218 Aerofoil

The wing used here has a chord length on 121mm and semi-span of 330mm, upon
which the winglet were modelled. The winglets were created at the angles on 0, 30, 45, 60
and 90 degrees with the wing.

Parameter Dimensions
θ = 00 θ = 300 θ = 450 θ = 600
Wing Root Chord(mm) 121 121 121 121
Wing Tip Chord(mm) 60.5 60.5 60.5 60.5
Angled Height(mm) 0 55.1 55.1 55.1
Vertical Height(mm) 0 26.6 39.0 47.7
Horizontal Height(mm) 55.1 47.7 39.0 27.6

Table 4.1 Parameters and dimensions

30
The CAD models of winglet with an angle of 300, 450 and 600 respectively generated in
SolidWorks is illustrated below.

Note that the fluid domain around the geometry was constructed in Design Modeller
of Ansys 19.1, also the CFD analysis was done in Ansys fluent

Figure 1.4.2 Winglet is at 30 with respect to wing

Figure 1.4.3 Winglet is at 45 with respect to wing

Figure 1.4.4 Winglet is at 60 with respect to wing

31
4.2 MESHING

Ansys mesh was used to generate the efficient mesh in the fluid domain which was
created in Design Modeller of the Ansys 19.1.

Automatic meshing generates unstructured mesh. Hence, to remove that

unstructured grid generated, the intelligent parameters such as inflation and sizing were
applied to ensure that the mesh is structured.

The combination of tetrahedral and quadrilateral mesh were used during meshing.
The quad mesh was used along the curvature of the wing and in rest of the domain the
tetrahedral mesh was used. The mesh near the winglet is very fine and coarse at the walls,
i.e. the size of the mesh element adjacent to the wing and winglet is very small (fine) and
the size of the mesh grid at the ends is larger. This is done to reduce the computational
effort and to reduce the time taken to solve the equation.

The meshing of the fluid domain around the said winglet is illustrated below.
Mention figure is the wireframe mesh of the fluid domain.

Figure 4.2.1 Fluid Domain

32
 Figure 4.2.2 3D Elements of the Mesh

Figure 4.2.3 Structured Grid around the Winglet

33
CHAPTER 5

Parameters
Following parameters are consider during solving the problem. The Reynolds
Averaged Navier Stokes (RANS) equations coupled with a turbulence model was used to
solve the problem of turbulent flow over the wing with winglet.

 Space - 3 Dimensional
 Time - Steady
 Material - Air flow
 Flow - Steady
 Equations - Reynolds Averaged Navier Stokes (RANS)
 Turbulence model - Spalart-Allmaras (SA)
 Airfoil - NACA 653218
 Inlet velocity - 35 m/s
 Reynolds number - 2.89 × 105
 Winglet cant angle - 0 °, 30 °, 45 °, 60 °, 90 °
 Angle of attack - 0 °, 4°, 8°, 12°

34
Chapter 6

Result and Analysis

Validation of the base journal was done by comparing the two graph plots. After
meshing at different angle of attack, the setup was done in ANSYS. The setup had above
mentioned parameters in it. For the analysis, the Reynolds Averaged Navier Stokes
(RANS) equations was used with a turbulence model. The solver (ANSYS CFX) discretizes
the RANS equations over the grid elements. The turbulence model used was Spalart-
Allmaras. SA model is used to solve turbulent viscosity. This is then applied to the RANS
equations. The analysis was simulated for 500 iterations. At around 500 iterations, the
solutions were fully converged.

The graph plot shown below in figure 6.1 refers to the plot of Cd vs. Angle of attack.
Cd is Co-efficient of drag which is an important parameter. We ran results at 0, 4, 8 and 12
degree angle of attack. The following data in figure 6.2 shows the comparison of data of 2
plots i.e. the base journal result and the simulation results simulated by us. In the
comparison we can see that values are almost identical and 2 plots are matching.

Figure 6.1 Cd vs AoA

35
 Figure 6.2 Validation Plot of Cd vs AoA

In the Figure 6.3 we plotted the Cl graph on different Angle of attacks. We

simulated the coefficient of lift at different angle of attacks i.e. 0, 4, 8 and 12 degrees. The
setup and model remained same as per the base journal. The Figure 6.4 shows the data of
Base journal compared to our simulation results. The validation plot has a similar pattern
and doesn’t varies much, thus by the graph plots we can conclude that coefficient of lift has
been validated.

Figure 6.3 Plot of Cl vs AoA

36
 Figure 6.4 Validation plot of Cl vs AoA

From the results of analysis done, we can conclude from the above graph plots that the base
journal results are genuine. The validation of our geometry and setup with respect to the
base journal’s setup concludes by obtaining the identical graph plots of coefficient of lift
and drag.

Angle of attack Journal Data Our Data Percentage Difference

0 0.032941 0.020917 37%
4 0.044314 0.034555 22%
8 0.073333 0.064 13%
12 0.138824 0.10673 23%
Table 6.1 Cd Data

Angle of attack Journal Data Our Data Percentage Difference

0 0.101822 0.14139 28%
4 0.325326 0.37045 12%
8 0.489448 0.58863 17%
12 0.566972 0.7559 25%
Table 6.2 Cl Data

37
Chapter 7

Grid Integration study

After obtaining the results for the simulation of aerofoil, we conducted a Grid
Integration test. Grid Integration tests helps determine the genuineness of a mesh. Meshing
is refined in each step of G.I study and the setup is simulated to get identical results every
time for every different mesh.

For the meshing and setup we used CFX solver and model SA, element model was
linear and 3 G.I studies were conducted.

Chapter 7.1

G.I study 1

In first G.I study there were total of 71,500 elements. The figure displayed below
shows the results for the following.

Figure 7.1.1 G.I study with 71k elements.

38
G.I study 2

In the second G.I study we did meshing with 30k elements. The figure below shows
the plot and results for the following.

Figure 7.1.2 G.I study with 30k elements.

G.I study 3

In the third G.I study setup was simulated with the mesh having 73,000 elements.
The figure below shows the result in a graph plot.

Figure 7.1.3 G.I study with 30k elements

39
Chapter 7.2

The Comparison of G.I study

All the 3 G.I studies are compared and matched to obtain the final graph plot. The
below figures shows the graph plots of coefficient of lift and drag.

Figure 7.2.1 Cd comparison

Figure 7.2.2 Cl comparison

40
Chapter 8

Turbulence Model Study

In turbulence model study we used different turbulent study model to validate the
results. Here the aim is to see which model gives the accurate results.

The models that were used in turbulence model study are as follows.

 Spalart-Allmaras
 Reynolds stress model
 K epsilon model

We used above mention model study on the 3d geometry of the wing with the cant
angle of 45 degree. Time taken for calculation for different model is different.

It is seen that the SA model gives the accurate results for this type of CFD problem.
The results seen from the SA model was close to the simulation results in the journal.
Also the model used in the journal is the SA model.

41
Chapter 9

Summary and Conclusion

Chapter 9.1

Summary

Our project of Aerodynamic analysis of cant angle for variable winglet is a final year
project. In this project we planned to validate the base journal which was published by
A.Beechok and J. wang. The journal was about the variable cant angle of winglet for
improved flight performance. The validation was done in two parts.

1. The validation of the Cl, Cd for the NACA 653218 airfoil in 3d simulation without
winglet at different angles of attack.
2. The validation of the Cl, Cd for the NACA 653218 airfoil winglet at cant angle of
45 degree at different Angles of Attack.

For validation of the base journal the following things are accomplished.

Works accomplished during the project

 Searched for a specific suitable topic.

 Found journals and different types of literatures on the selected topic.
 Selected our base journal.
 Read and reviewed all the literature.
 Obtained basic idea of the topic.
 Studied detailed ways to execute the project.
 Downloaded the appropriate software used for the project.
 Studied the software and CFD used in the software.
 Designed the geometry according to the dimensions provided in the journal.
 Meshing
 Analysis at different angle of attack.
 Submitted Project progress report
 Submitted the PSAR

42
  Designed and made Design engineering sheets
 Designed 4 sheets with different aspects of project.
 Compared the test and analysis data to the data of journal.
 Calculated the error.
 Completed validation for the Cd parameter at different angle of attack.
 Derived a conclusion.

Chapter 9.2

Conclusion

The results we obtained from our analysis of 7th semester project gave us the
following insights.

 The solutions to the various parameters converged successfully.

 The mesh used for analysis was accurate as per the G.I study results.
 The results for various parameters were in believable/practical range.
 The graph plot followed the same trend as the base journal’s data.
 The values were very small and they did match to the particular decimal value of
the base journal data.
 The minute values had decimal values for the power of 4 to 5.
 The small decimal values added up for the high percentage errors.

The conclusion derived from the above obtained insights is that our Project data didn’t
matched with the results and data of the base journal. The target for validation of journal
was not achieved. Although the graph plot trend and the data to the particular decimal
values matched the journal data, the percentage error was not achievable below 8%. Any
error above 8% is not acceptable. Thus, our result and analysis data is not identical to the
base journal’s data.

43
REFERENCES:
[1] M. K. V. Sankrithi, B.J. Frommer, “Controllable Winglets”, United States Patent
Document, Patent No. US2008/0308683, 2008.

[2] R. Hallion, “NASA’s Contributions to Aeronautics: Aerodynamics, Structures,

Propulsion, and Controls”, Vol. 1, Washington, DC: NASA SP-2010-570-Vol 1, 2010, pp.
116-118.

[3] R. H. Grant, “Retractable Multiple Winglets”, United States Patent Document, Patent
No. US2007/0262205, 2007.

[4] J. B. Allen, “Articulating Winglets”, United States Patent Document, Patent No.
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[5] W. Freitag, T. E. Schulze, “Blended Winglets Improve Performance”, Boeing Aero

Magazine, pp. 9-10.

[6] L.B. Gratzer, “Spiroid-tipped Wing”, United States Patent Document, Patent No.
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[7] W. Garvey, “Spiroid Winglets – The Way Forward?”, Aviation Week & Space
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[8] M. J. Smith, N. Komerath, R. Ames, O. Wong, “Performance Analysis of a Wing with

Multiple Winglets”, School of Aerospace Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology,
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[9] M. A. Azlin, C. F. Mat Taib, S. Kasolang, F. H. Muhammad, “CFD Analysis of

Winglets at Low Subsonic Flow”, World Congress on Engineering 2011, Vol. 1, 2011, pp.
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[10] I. I. Mohammad, M. Mohammad, A. N. Abdullah, S. M. S. Selim, “Induced Drag

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69-74.

44
[11] A. Hossain, A. Rahman, P. Iqbal, M. Ariffin, M. Mazian, “Drag Analysis of an
Aircraft Wing Model with and without Bird Feather like Winglet”, International Journal of
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[12] P. Marks, “Morphing Winglets Make for Greener Aircraft”, New Scientist, Issue
2692, 2009.

[13] P. Bourdin, A. Gatto, M. I. Friswell, “The Application of Variable Cant Angle

Winglets for Morphing Aircraft Control”, AAIA Journal - 24th Applied Aerodynamics
Conference, 2006, pp. 1-13.

[14] P. Bourdin, A. Gatto, M. I. Friswell, “Aircraft Control via Variable Cant-Angle

Winglets”, Journal of Aircraft,Vol. 45, No. 2, 2008, pp. 414-423.

45