Just Winging It

Overview

Objectives/Goals Our goal for this project was to determine if we could modify the top surface of a foam wing with uneven patterns such as dimples or ridges, and increase its performance at at measurable level. Methods/Materials For this project, we used 3" thick insulation foam, one sheet of Plexiglas cut in half lengthwise, and a high RPM fan to construct a wind tunnel. One-inch thick insulation foam was used to construct the wing prototypes. We designed and tested three wing types: dimpled, ridged and control; using a 1/2"drill bit to create the dimples and 40 grit sandpaper for the ridges. A postal scale was used to ensure equal weight of 0.45 oz for each wing. A potentiometer was needed to adjust the speed of the fan, and an Infrared RPM meter to measure the speed. We flew each wing at the lowest possible RPMs to stay aloft, and recorded the RPMs at the stall mark, determined to be 2"(5.08cm) from the floor of the wind tunnel. We ran 20 trials for each wing according to this protocol. Results The data from the test flights showed that the control wing averaged 1,032 RPMs to maintain pre-stall. The dimpled wing was the most efficient with an average 873 RPMs to pre-stall, a 15.4% decrease in RPMs compared to the control wing. The ridged wing averaged 1,123 RPMs to maintain pre-stall, an 8.8% increase in RPMs over the control wing. Conclusions/Discussion The results partially supported our hypothesis that by modifying the surface of a wing with an uneven dimpled pattern will increase aerodynamic efficiency, due to the fact that the ridged wing showed a decrease in efficiency from the control wing. The significance of this project in terms of real world applications includes design of a wing prototype using dimpling, that results in a lower stall speed, thereby enabling safer and lower speed take-offs and landings. This in turn may lead to decreased fuel cost and shorter runways needed for any aircraft in general. Other variables that could be refined/added to future testing are: additional uneven wing surface designs, conducting flight tests at different times of day, monitoring barometric pressure and temperature, a lower friction rail system, and a higher RPM fan.

Awards (1)

• Third Place

Competition history

• CSEF 2014 Aerodynamics/ Hydrodynamics (Junior Division Only) · Entry J0102

Resources

• CSEF project summary ↗

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