INTRODUCTION Aerofoil Nomenclature Aeroplane nomenclature Aerofoil Pressure Distributions Aerodynamic forces Aerodynamic drags

Downwash Coefficient of Lift Coefficient of Drag Boundary Layer Aspect ratio Cl vs Angle Of Attack

Aerofoil Terminology

1. The leading edge is the point at the front of the airfoil that has maximum curvature 2. The trailing edge is defined similarly as the point of maximum curvature at the rear of the airfoil. 3. The chord line is a straight line connecting the leading and trailing edges of the airfoil. 4. The chord length, or simply chord, , is the length of the chord line and is the characteristic dimension of the airfoil section. 5. The mean camber line is the locus of points midway between the upper and lower surfaces. Its exact shape depends on how the thickness is defined; 6. The thickness of an airfoil varies along the chord. It may be measured in either of two ways: a. Thickness measured perpendicular to the camber line. This is sometimes described as the "American convention" b. Thickness measured perpendicular to the chord line. This is sometimes described as the "British convention". Finally, important concepts used to describe the aerofoils behaviour when moving through a fluid are: 7. The aerodynamic centre, which is the chord-wise length about which the pitching moment is independent of the lift coefficient and the angle of attack. 8. The centre of pressure, which is the chord-wise location about which the pitching moment is zero.

Aeroplane Terminolgy

Ailerons are mounted on the trailing edge of each wing near the wingtips and move in opposite directions. When the pilot moves the stick left, or turns the wheel counter-clockwise, the left aileron goes up and the right aileron goes down. A raised aileron reduces lift on that wing and a lowered one increases lift, so moving the stick left causes the left wing to drop and the right wing to rise. This causes the aircraft to roll to the left and begin to turn to the left. Centering the stick returns the ailerons to neutral maintaining the bank angle. The aircraft will continue to turn until opposite aileron motion returns the bank angle to zero to fly straight An elevator is a moveable part of the horizontal stabilizer, hinged to the back of the fixed part of the horizontal tail. They move up and down together. When the pilot pulls the stick backward, the elevators go up. Pushing the stick forward causes the elevators to go down. Raised elevators push down on the tail and cause the nose to pitch up. This makes the wings fly at a higher angle of attack, which generates more lift and more drag. Centering the stick returns the elevators to neutral and stops the change of pitch. Many aircraft use a fully moveable horizontal stabilizer called stabilator or all-moving tail. Some aircraft, such as an MD-80, use a servo tab within the elevator surface to aerodynamically move the main surface into position. The direction of travel of the control tab will thus be in a direction opposite to the main control surface. It is for this reason that an MD-80 tail looks like it has a 'split' elevator system. The rudder is typically mounted on the trailing edge of the vertical stabilizer, part of the empennage. When the pilot pushes the left pedal, the rudder deflects left. Pushing the right pedal causes the rudder to deflect right. Deflecting the rudder right pushes the tail left and causes the nose to yaw to the right. Centering the rudder pedals returns the rudder to neutral and stops the yaw. On low drag aircraft like sailplanes, spoilers are used to disrupt airflow over the wing and greatly increase the amount of drag. This allows a glider pilot to lose altitude without gaining excessive airspeed. Spoilers are sometimes called "lift dumpers". Spoilers that can be used asymmetrically are called spoilers and are able to affect an aircraft's roll. Flaps are mounted on the trailing edge on the inboard section of each wing (near the wing roots). They are deflected down to increase the effective curvature of the wing. Flaps raise the Maximum Lift Coefficient of the aircraft and therefore reduce its stalling speed. They are used during low speed, high angle of attack flight including take-off and descent for landing. Some aircraft are equipped with "flapperons", which are more commonly called "inboard ailerons". These devices function primarily as ailerons, but on some aircraft, will "droop" when the flaps are deployed, thus acting as both a flap and a roll-control inboard aileron. Slats, also known as leading edge devices, are extensions to the front of a wing for lift augmentation, and are intended to reduce the stalling speed by altering the airflow over the wing. Slats may be fixed or retractable - fixed slats (e.g. as on the Fieseler Fi 156 Storch) give excellent slow speed and STOL capabilities, but compromise higher speed performance. Retractable slats, as seen on most airliners, provide reduced stalling speed for take-off and landing, but are retracted for cruising.

Aerodynamic Forces

When an airfoil (or a wing) is moving relative to the air it generates an aerodynamic force, in a rearward direction at an angle with the direction of relative motion. This aerodynamic force is commonly resolved into two components drag is the force component parallel to the direction of relative motion, lift is the force component perpendicular to the direction of relative motion The force created by a propeller or a jet engine is called thrust and it is also an aerodynamic force (since it also acts on the surrounding air) The force created by a propeller or a jet engine is called thrust and it is also an aerodynamic force (since it also acts on the surrounding air)

The KuttaJoukowski theorem The KuttaJoukowski theorem is a fundamental theorem of aerodynamics. The theorem relates the lift generated by a right cylinder to the speed of the cylinder through the fluid, the density of the fluid, and the circulation. The circulation is defined as the line integral, around a closed loop enclosing the cylinder or airfoil, of the component of the velocity of the fluid tangent to the loop.[1] The magnitude and direction of the fluid velocity change along the path.

The theorem refers to two-dimensional flow around a cylinder (or a cylinder of infinite span) and determines the lift generated by one unit of span. When the circulation is known, the lift per unit span (or ) of the cylinder can be calculated using the following equation

where and are the fluid density and the fluid velocity far upstream of the cylinder, and (anticlockwise positive) circulation defined as the line integral,

is the

Aerodynamic Drags There are two main types of drag 1. Induced 2. Parasitic: a. Form drag b. Skin friction c. Interference drag

1. Induced Drag This type of drag is based upon efficiency. Because no machine is 100% efficient, induced drag exists. With an increase in efficiency, there will be a decrease in induced drag. It is the drag due to lift Drag is defined in pounds 2. Parasitic Drag types i. Form Drag: Due to the shape of an aircraft, form drag is a result of airflow going around it. Consider a flat plate vs. a sphere when being thrown ii. Interference Drag: This occurs a the intersection of air currents. For example, the wing root connected to the fuselage. iii. Skin friction: This drag is the aerodynamic resistance from the contact of air with the surface of the airplane. Sources of Induced Drag When producing lift, air below the wing is generally at a higher pressure than the air pressure above the wing, while air above the wing is generally at a lower than atmospheric pressure. On a wing of finite span, this pressure difference causes air to flow from the lower surface wing root, around the wingtip, towards the upper surface wing root. This spanwise flow of air combines with chordwise flowing air, causing a change in speed and direction, which twists the airflow and produces vortices along the wing trailing edge. The vortices created are unstable, and they quickly combine to produce wingtip vortices. The resulting vortices change the speed and direction of the airflow behind the trailing edge, deflecting it downwards, and thus inducing downwash behind the wing. Wingtip vortices modify the airflow around a wing. Compared to a wing of infinite span, vortices reduce the effectiveness of the wing to generate lift, thus requiring a higher angle of attack to compensate, which tilts the total aerodynamic force rearwards. The angular deflection is small and has little effect on the lift. However, there is an increase in the drag equal to the product of the lift force and the angle through which it is deflected. Since the deflection is itself a function of the lift, the additional drag is proportional to the square of the lift.

Reducing Induced drag Theoretically a wing of infinite span and constant airfoil section would produce no induced drag. The characteristics of such a wing can be measured on a section of wing spanning the width of awind tunnel, since the walls block spanwise flow and create what is effectively two-dimensional flow. A rectangular wing produces much more severe wingtip vortices than a tapered or elliptical wing, therefore many modern wings are tapered. However, an elliptical planform is more efficient as the induced downwash (and therefore the effective angle of attack) is constant across the whole of the wingspan. Few

aircraft have this planform because of manufacturing complications the most famous examples being the World War II Spitfire and Thunderbolt. Tapered wings with straight leading and trailing edges can approximate to elliptical lift distribution. Typically, straight wings produce between 515% more induced drag than an elliptical wing. Similarly, a high aspect ratio wing will produce less induced drag than a wing of low aspect ratio because the size of the wing vortices will be much reduced on a longer, thinner wing. Induced drag can therefore be said to be inversely proportional to aspect ratio. The lift distribution may also be modified by the use of washout, a spanwise twist of the wing to reduce the incidence towards the wingtips, and by changing the airfoil section near the wingtips. This allows more lift to be generated at the wing root and less towards the wingtip, which causes a reduction in the strength of the wingtip vortices. Some early aircraft had fins mounted on the tips of the tailplane which served as endplates. More recent aircraft have wingtip mounted winglets or wing fences to oppose the formation of vortices. Wingtip mounted fuel tanks may also provide some benefit, by preventing the spanwise flow of air around the wingtip.

What are wingtip vortices? This is the wake that is generated from the wingtips. They are counter-rotating vortices that are caused from air spilling over the end of the wing. This pressure differential triggers the rollup of the airflow aft of the wing resulting in swirling air masses trailing downstream of the wingtips (PHAK 12-13) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E1ESmvyAmOs Wingtips generate induced drag. Therefore if an infinite wing does not have wingtips, it would not generate induced drag.

Introduction One of the primary obstacles limiting the performance of aircraft is the drag that the aircraft produces. This drag stems out from the vortices shed by an aircrafts wings, which causes the local relative wind downward (an effect known as downward) and generated a component of the local lift force in the direction of the free stream called induced drag. The strength of this induced drag is proportional to the spacing and radii of these vortices. By designing wings which force the vortices farther apart and at the same time create vortices with large core radii, one may significantly reduce the amount of the drag the aircraft induces. Airplanes which experience less drag require less power and therefore less fuel to fly an arbitrary distance, thus making flight, commercial and otherwise, more efficient and less costly. Vortices at the wing tip can cause crash in aircraft. This is when a big aircraft goes in front of a small aircraft; this big aircraft which has larger vortices can cause the small aircraft to lose control and crash. In airport to minimize the separation rule, an aircraft of a lower wake vortex category must not be allowed to take off less than two minutes behind an aircraft of a higher wake vortex category. If the following aircraft does not start its take off roll from the same point as the preceding aircraft, this is increased to three minutes. One promising drag reduction device is winglet. For a number of years many investigations have been carried out to prove the possible benefits of modifying wing tip flow. Tip devices have become a popular technique to increase the aerodynamic performances of lifting wings. The present demand on fuel consumption has emphasized to improve aerodynamic efficiency of an aircraft through a wingtip device which diffuses the strong vortices produced at the tip and thereby optimise the span wise lift distribution, while maintaining the additional moments on the wing within certain limits.