Sustainable air transportation requires aerodynamically efficient airplanes. Thus, reduction of drag is of paramount importance. From a pure induced drag perspective, this goal can be achieved by the adoption of nonplanar configurations such as C-Wings, Joined Wings or with other design options such as wingtip devices (winglets). Under the assumption of inviscid flow with wake aligned with the freestream velocity, several winglet designs are investigated and general properties are demonstrated. In particular, under optimal conditions, given a closed simply connected wingtip region bounded by a curve, any winglet design geometrically included in that region will be less efficient than the winglet whose lifting line is represented by the bounding curve. Moreover, closed winglets are characterized by undetermined optimal aerodynamic load but unique and global minimum for the induced drag. Finally the Box Winglet and several variations of it are proposed as effective forms to reduce induced drag.


    Access

    Check access

    Check availability in my library

    Order at Subito €


    Export, share and cite



    Title :

    Optimum Induced Drag of Wingtip Devices: The Concept of Best Winglet Design


    Additional title:

    Aerotec. Missili Spaz.


    Contributors:

    Published in:

    Publication date :

    2022-03-01


    Size :

    33 pages




    Type of media :

    Article (Journal)


    Type of material :

    Electronic Resource


    Language :

    English




    Correction to: Optimum Induced Drag of Wingtip Devices: The Concept of Best Winglet Design

    Demasi, Luciano / Monegato, Giovanni / Cavallaro, Rauno et al. | Springer Verlag | 2022


    Minimum Induced Drag Conditions for Winglets: the Best Winglet Design Concept

    Demasi, Luciano / Monegato, Giovanni / Cavallaro, Rauno et al. | AIAA | 2019


    Effect of Slotted Winglet on the Wingtip Vortex

    Deslich, Joshua / Gunasekaran, Sidaard | AIAA | 2019


    Pneumatic structure of wingtip winglet of bionic eagle wing

    WANG JIMING / YAO YUAN / YANG WANLI et al. | European Patent Office | 2023

    Free access

    Effect of Winglet Serration Geometry on the Wingtip Vortex

    Gehlert, Pascal / Sabnis, Kshitij / Babinsky, Holger | AIAA | 2022