Elliptical Wingtip Extensions: A Novel Way to Improve Airplane Performance

Overview

Objectives/Goals My research focuses on designing prototypes of novel wings with elliptical wingtip extensions that can increase the lift-to-drag ratio of an airplane. This research also seeks to find the optimal length of the wingtip that can improve performance under various flight conditions. Methods/Materials After surveying existing wing designs, I designed eight different model wings including wings with various lengths of elliptical wingtips. Desmos, a graphing calculator application was used to calculate and plot coordination of the wings. The plotted geometric data of wings were transferred to Matlab, and I used Tornado (A Vortex Lattice Method Simulator that runs on Matlab) to simulate the lift to drag ratio of each of them. The computer simulation results were verified with wind tunnel tests of 3D printed wings. Lift and drag of each model were measured with LabQuest 2 Vernier with force sensors. To create physical wings, Matlab lattice data of wings were imported to SketchUp, and airfoil shape was applied to them. Then the 3D models were sent to Sculpteo, a 3D printing service. Results In the computer simulation trials, wings with Elliptical Wingtip Extensions have produced a better lift-to-drag ratio compared to the conventional wings or the vertical winglet extension. Among them, a specific Elliptical Wingtip Extension model has shown the most efficient lift-to-drag ratio compared to other wings throughout the majority of the testing conditions. In the wind tunnel tests, the measured results of lift-to-drag ratio showed higher sensitivity to the angles of attack than the computer simulation. While there was no single model that had the highest lift-to-drag ratio across all the angles of attack, but two models with Elliptical Wingtip Extensions have shown the best lift to drag ratios during several testing conditions. Conclusions/Discussion Throughout the computer simulations and wind tunnel tests with different speeds and angles, wings with elliptical wingtip extensions have shown to produce a higher lift-to-drag ratio than conventional wing designs in general. The optimal length of the wingtip was identified through the computer simulations.

Competition history

• CSEF 2017 Aerodynamics/ Hydrodynamics (Junior Division Only) · Entry J0118

Resources

• CSEF project summary ↗

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