This study investigates the potential of unconventional aircraft transports through numerical optimization. Three distinct configurations are investigated: a box wing, a C-tip blended wing–body, and a braced wing. Each transport is sized for the same regional mission and is subjected to the same optimization strategy based on the Euler equations. The figure of merit is inviscid pressure drag at transonic speed; the nonlinear constraints are lift, pitching moment, and internal volume. The design variables include the section shape and twist distribution of the main lifting surfaces. It is found that the box-wing, C-tip blended-wing–body, and braced-wing configurations investigated here are, respectively, 34.1, 36.2, and 40.3% more efficient than a similarly optimized conventional tube-and-wing configuration. Each optimization revealed, in one way or another, the importance of accounting for flow nonlinearity during the early stages of unconventional aircraft design. For the blended wing–body, the C tip does not appear to provide a drag benefit over a purely vertical winglet, presumably as a result of the compressibility effects prevalent in the C opening. For the braced wing, compressibility effects also lead to a curious result, where the supporting strut finds itself carrying negative lift at the optimum.
Euler-Equation-Based Drag Minimization of Unconventional Aircraft Configurations
Journal of Aircraft ; 53 , 5 ; 1361-1371
2016-05-10
11 pages
Article (Journal)
Electronic Resource
English
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