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Winglet Thesis

This document summarizes the purpose and design of winglets on aircraft wings. It explains that wingtip vortices cause induced drag by tilting the wing and redirecting some lift backward. Winglets are vertical projections on the wingtips that help reduce drag by weakening or redirecting wingtip vortices upward. The purpose of this study is to analyze different types of winglets and compare their performance in reducing drag through simulation.

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Neo Anderson
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337 views4 pages

Winglet Thesis

This document summarizes the purpose and design of winglets on aircraft wings. It explains that wingtip vortices cause induced drag by tilting the wing and redirecting some lift backward. Winglets are vertical projections on the wingtips that help reduce drag by weakening or redirecting wingtip vortices upward. The purpose of this study is to analyze different types of winglets and compare their performance in reducing drag through simulation.

Uploaded by

Neo Anderson
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOC, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Ahsanullah University of

Science & Technology


Department of Mechanical &
Production Engineering

Design Analysis of
Winglets
When an aircraft takes off, high pressure air from the bottom of
aircrafts wing escapes around the wingtip, moving up towards the
lower pressure area on the top of the wing. This movement creates a
vortex or tunnel of air, rotating inwards behind the wing. They're
strongest when the air pressure difference between the top and the
bottom of the wing is the greatest. This occurs when the aircraft is at
high angles of attack which generates the most induced lift.

Fig: Vortex Generation.

Aircraft wing generates lift perpendicular to the relative wind. The


wingtip vortices curve up and around the wingtips, pushing the air
flowing over the wing downward. That angles the relative wind
downward and tends to tilt the wing making the lift backward which as
a result turns some lift into drag.

Fig: Change of angle due to wingtip vortices.

This causes two problems some of lift is now pointing backward,


adding to drag. And as the backward lift increases and adding drag,
the counter weight increases. So, to maintain level flight, it is needed
to increase angle of attack and generate more lift. And generating
more lift means generating more induced drag. This extra angle of
attack you need is called the induced angle of attack.

Winglets are vertical projection on the tip of an aircraft wing for


reducing drag. It helps to prevent the formation of vortices and thus
eliminating the alteration of airflow behind the wing. But total
prevention of vortices is not possible. So, it moves the downward
vortices up, over the wing and creates weaker vortices to reduce drag.

Fig: Comparison of Vortex Generation

Fig: Different popular winglets, A. the conventional winglet, B. a blended winglet, C.


an elliptical winglet

The purpose of this thesis is to study on different types of winglets and

to compare between their performance on reducing drag and to


develop a conceptual winglet design in a simulation software.

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