Origin of aerodynamic forces

Drag
terminology
matrix
CLmax

C Lmax
Parabolic
distribution
Uncambered
Cambered
CD  CD0  KCL
2


CD  CDmin  K CL  CLmin drag 
2
Lift Curve «Slope»

Wing incidence angle • Cruise performance

• Fuselage angle of attack during

take-off and landing
Calculation of induced drag
• Aft fuselage sweep angle

• Landing gear length

Longitudinal stability
Subsonic
Lift Curve
Slope
Subsonic Lift Curve Slope

With Endplate

With Winglet
Supersonic Lift Curve Slope (theory)

Needs sophisticated
computer programs.
Approximate method:

Actual CN as a function of AR,  and l.e.


Calculate “if > 1.0” invert and use the right side of the chart.
tan  LE
Transonic Lift Curve Slope

There are no good initial-

estimation methods for slope of
the lift curve.

It is suggested that the subsonic

and supersonic values be
plotted vs Mach number, and
that a smooth curve be faired
between the subsonic and
supersonic values.
Maximum Lift (clean) Wing area • “Take-off weight”
• Cruise drag

Most subsonic aircraft of moderate sweep:

“airfoil characteristics”, %90 of 2-D airfoil (similar Reynolds number).

CLmax  0.9Clmax Cos(0.25c )

Airfoil leading edge sharpness parameter (Y)

High aspect ratio wings:

 CLmax 
CLmax  Clmax    CL
 Cl  max
 max 

Clmax : CLmax at M  0.2

  CLmax 
CLmax  Clmax    CL
 Cl  max
 max 
The angle of attack for maximum lift

High aspect ratio:

CLmax
CLmax   0L  CLmax
Cl 

Zero lift angle

Maximum Lift with High Lift Devices
Increases lift by increasing camber.
Maximum lift occurs approximately at 400 - 450 .

Increases lift similarly

But increases drag and less change in pitching moment.

Permits air transfer from high-pressure to top of the flap.

This reduces the separation risk.
Increase in lift and decrease in drag.

Increases lift by camber and wing area.

But increases the cost and complexity of the aircraft.
A hole which permits high-pressure air from
under the wing to blow over the top.
Delay in separation.

Increase the camber.

Increase the camber and the wing area.

It works as an air dam, forcing air up and over

the top of the wing.
Lighter according to slats but increases the
drag, especially at lower angles of attack.
LEX delays the stall at high angles ofattack.

Provides additional lift

which increase the “lift slope”.
 H.L. : Hinge Line

CL,max Take Off  60  80 % CL,max Landing

 0 L airfoil : 150 (landing)
 100 (take off )
Zero lift drag (Parasite): biggest contributor friction drag

Cfe : equivalent skin friction coefficient

The equivalent skin friction coefficient depends on the aerodynamic design of the aircraft
and varies between 0.003 and 0.005

 To obtain an accurate estimate of the parasite drag, the drag contribution of each
individual component must be considered.

 This approach is termed the drag breakdown method.

The drag breakdown

 For streamlined components, determine the skin friction drag of a flat plate of the same
wetted area, and then

 Modify / correct (Increase) the estimated drag by a factor known as the form factor.

 This is an estimation of the effects of the variation of pressure along the component of
the skin friction drag.

 The interaction of components also must be accounted called interference drag.

Equivalent Skin Friction Method
Well designed aircraft:
Subsonic cruise parasite drag mostly
Cfe from skin-friction and a small from
separation pressure drag.
Component Buildup Method Using “flat plate” drag coefficient.

where

• Cf c : flat plate skin friction coefficient of the component

• FFc : form factor of the component
• Q : interference factor of the component
• Swet : wetted area of the i-thcomponent

• CD,misc : drag contribution due to special features of aircraft (flaps, landing

gear, upswept aft fuselage, base area)

• CD L&P : contributions for leakages and protuberances

Flat Plate Skin Friction Coefficient Depends on the stream-wise length of the plate.

• R is the Reynolds number based on stream-wise length

• M is the Mach number

Vl • V is the airspeed
R • l is the stream-wise length
 • ν is the kinematic viscosity

 For an axi-symmetric body, such as a fuselage or engine nacelle, the

stream-wise length is easy to determine:

«total length»
 For a lifting surface such as a wing, horizontal or vertical tail the stream-wise
length is more difficult to determine since these surfaces are typically tapered.

 The most appropriate length to use is the mean aerodynamic chord of the
exposed surface.

 This is defined by the expression

• Se is the planform area of the exposed planform

• c is the stream-wise chord
• y is the span-wise coordinate

A linearly tapered wing Explicit equation

where e is the taper ratio of the exposed surface:

Comments:

 The expression for skin friction coefficient shows that as

the Reynolds number increases the skin friction coefficient decreases.

 This is valid for an ideal smooth surface, but for a rough surface,
the Reynolds number does not continue to decrease but rather stays roughly
constant at high Reynolds number (after a limit).

 This behaviour can be modelled approximately by defining a cut-off

Reynolds number above which the skin friction coefficient no longer
decreases.
For rough surfaces:

k: The average rouhghness height

Lower of R or Rcut off should be used in turbulent Cf equation

Component Form Factors The form factor is intended to reflect the effect of the
varying pressure distribution.

Wing, Tail, Strut and Pylon:

(x/c)m: chord-wise location of airfoil maximum thickness point. 0.3 : low speed airfoil
0.5 : high speed airfoil
m : Sweep angle of the max. thickness line

FF is 10 % higher for tail surfaces with hinged rudder or elevator

Fuselage and Smooth Canopy

f is diameter to length ratio:

Nacelle and Smooth External Store:
Component Interference Factors
It is very difficult to estimate the interference factor accurately.

(Raymer recommendation values Interference factor

are higher than other authors) Q
Nacelle or external store mounted directly on the wing 1.5
If mounted less than one diameter 1.3
If mounted much beyond one diameter 1.0
For high wing, mid wing and well filletted low wing 1.0
Unfilletted low wing 1.1-1.4
Fuselage 1.0
Boundary Layer Diverter 1.0
Clean V-tail 1.03
Conventional Tail 1.04-1.05
H-tail 1.08
Miscellaneous Drag

 The miscellaneous drag coefficient represents components which have not

been already been considered.

 These may include struts or landing gear.

 Data from wind tunnel tests are useful here.

A good source of data is the book

«Aerodynamic Drag» by W. Hoerner.
Empirical graphs and equations. presented as D/q

For bomb and missiles

For external fuel tanks

For pylon and bomb-rack

For landing gear

Upsweep of the fuselage increases drag beyond the value calculated:

Amax : Max Cross-sectional area of the fuselage

Flaps affect both the parasite and induced drag.

The flap contribution to parasite drag is caused by the separated flow above the flap:

 flap  10

 C  Sflapped 
C D0flap  Fflap  f

 C  S ref 

Plain flaps: Fflap = 0.0144 flap : flap deflection angle (deg),

landing: 60-70 deg
Slotted flaps: Fflap = 0.0074 take off: 20-40 deg
Fuselage Mounted Speed Brakes

D
 1.0 A frontal
q

D
Wing Mounted Speed Brakes
(mounted at 60%chord location)
 1.6 Afrontal
q

Speed brakes mounted on top of the wing also spoil the lift and called as spoilers.

 more weight transferred to the landing gear

 reduced landing distance
Base area produces a drag:

Abase : Area of aft facing flat surfaces

Projected aft facing area for any portions of the aft fuselage that experience
highly separated air flow.

(fuselage angle to the freestream > 20 deg,

for pusher propeller > 30 deg)

For windshield, cockpit etc. See the book.

Leakage and Protuberance Drag

The leakage and protuberance drag is usually estimated as a fraction of the total.

% of total parasite drag

Jet transports and bombers 2-5 %
Propeller aircraft 5-10 %
Current design fighters 10-15 %
Antennas, lights, door
New design fighters 5-10 % edges, fuel vents, control
Variable sweep wings 3% surface external hinges, ...
Stopped-Propeller and Wind-milling Engine Drags

Feathered propeller: propeller is turned so that the blades align with the airflow.

foe an unfeathered, stopped propeller replace 0.1 by 0.8

Supersonic Parasite Drag

Exceptions when compared to subsonic case:

1. FF = Q = 1.0

2. A new term, wave drag, is added.

Wave Drag: Pressure drag due to shocks.

It is a direct result of the way aircraft’s volume is distributed.

It will often be greater than all the other drag put together.

Ideal volume distribution is produced by the Sears-Haack body.

r : the cross section radius,

l : longitudinal dimension

Amax: maximum cross-sectional area.

Mach plane cut volume distribution Plane may be rolled about the
freestream direction to any roll angle.

Different volume distribution.

Mach plane cut volume distribution (two roll angles) (used for advanced methods
to predict wave drag)

For a preliminary wave drag analysis (M  1.2)

EWD : ratio between actual wave drag and the Sears-Haack value.

Area ruling that actually reduces Amax provides a far greater drag reduction than
does merely smoothing the volume distribution without lowering Amax.
Transonic Parasite Drag ( 1.2  M  0.8)

“Drag rise” due to the formation of shocks. MDD Boeing definition

Douglas definition
Mcr occurs when shocks form on the aircraft.

MDD is the Mach number at which the formation of shocks

begins to substantially affect the drag.

DOUGLAS DEFINITION BOEING DEFINITION

MDD estimation:

Initially, same as the lift coefficient at cruise.

Uncambered wing at zero lift

Actual lift coefficient
If the fuselage is relatively blunt it will experience shock formation before the wing does.

In this case, MDD is set by the shape of the fore-body.

Ln : length from the nose to the longitudinal location at which

the fuselage cross-section becomes essentially constant.

d : body diameter at that location.

For initial analysis for the drag rise:

 The drag at and above M = 1.2

 The drag at M = 1.05 is typically equal to M = 1.2 (B) Sref

 The drag at M = 1.00 is about half of the value at M = 1.05 (C)
 The drag rise at MDD is 0.002 by definition. (D)
 MCR is roughly 0.08 slower than MDD. (E)
• Straight line from B to C.
• Draw a curve from E to C.
• Draw a smooth curve from B to A.
Complete Parasite Drag Buildup
• Actual parasite drag and drag rise for a number of aircraft.
C D  C D0  KCL2 or 
C D  C D,min  K C L  C L,min drag 2
K=?
 a) Classical Method: Oswald Span Efficiency Method

e : Oswald efficiency factor, typically between 0.7 and 0.85

(LE > 30 deg)

If the wing has endplates or winglets

use effective aspect ratio.
At supersonic speeds, the induced drag factor K increaes substantially:
b) Leading Edge Suction Method

Drag at high angle of attack is strongly affected by viscous separation.

At high CL the drag polar breaks away from the parabolic shape represented by
a fixed value of K .
The e method ignores this.

For a large l.e. radius this is

acceptable

But for most supersonic aircraft

it gives a poor approximation.

Leading Edge Suction

Method for estimation of K
allows the variation of K with
lift coefficient and Mach
number.

Leading Edge Suction Force

S is perpendicular to the
normal force N.
100 % Leading Edge Suction:

If there is no viscous separation or induced downwash, the leading edge suction

force exactly balances the rearward component of the normal force and the airfoil
experiences zero drag. Ideal 2D case described by d’Alembert’s paradox.

For a 3D wing 100 % Leading Edge Suction means e = 1.0.

1
When e = 1.0 K
A

For a zero thickness flat plate airfoil, Leading Edge Suction is zero.
All real wings operate somewhere between 100 and 0 % leading edge suction.

S : % of leading edge suction.

For moderate sweep, large l.e. radius wing at subsonic cruise : S=0.85-0.95

For a supersonic fighter wing at a high g maneuver S approaches to zero.

Obtain S from the following figure

by using actual CL and design CL .
e and N can also be calculated,
Trim Drag

Horizontal tail force to trim the aircraft causes an induced drag.

Tail usually trims the aircraft with a download

 an increase in wing lift needed

 an increase in wing induced drag.

Ground Effect

Near the ground K can be substantially reduced.

h : wing height above ground.

Samples of Aerodynamic Analysis

Aircraft Lift Coefficient

Airfoil Design and Performance
Lift Distribution
 Aero Performance and Trades

• LWT= Low-Wing Tractor

• HWT=High-Wing Tractor
• LWP=Low-Wing Pusher

Mission Segment Performance Polars

(for configurations person)
Aero Performance