Combined Effect of Winglet and Trailing Edge Serrations on Performance of Aircraft Wings: A Computational and Experimental Study

Abstract

Winglet in an aircraft has been used to reduce turbulence and drag by breaking up vortices, which translate into fuel savings. Trailing edge has been incorporated in an aircraft to control the direction of the departing air flow.  This article explains the combined effect of winglet and trailing edge serrations on performance of aircraft wings. NACA 0012 airfoil model has been interrogated to investigate the effect. The performance of a wing with winglet, with triangular trailing edge serrations, with bird type trailing edge serrations alongside several combinations such as wing with winglet & triangular trailing edge serrations, with winglet & bird type trailing edge serrations have been analyzed in this study. A two-equation turbulence model, k-ɛ, was used to solve Reynolds Averaged-Navier-Stokes equations in ANSYS. The fabricated wings were tested on AF100 subsonic wind tunnel. By comparing the aerodynamic characteristics of coefficient of lift (C_L), coefficient of drag (C_D) and lift-to-drag ratio (L/D), it can be concluded that the wing with both winglet and bird type trailing edge serration had the most coefficient of lift (C_L) and lift-to-drag ratio (L/D).