Drag optimization for transport aircraft Mission Adaptive Wing

• Autor(a) principal: Martins,A. L.
• Data de Publicação: 2003
• Outros Autores: Catalano,F. M.
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Journal of the Brazilian Society of Mechanical Sciences and Engineering (Online)
• Texto Completo: http://old.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S1678-58782003000100001
• topic: Mission adaptive wing; optimization; wing aerodynamics; drag reduction

A direct optimization study was performed to produce a preliminary evaluation of the potential benefits of a mission adaptive wing employing variable camber technology in typical jet transport aircraft missions, in terms of fuel efficiency increase directly obtainable from airfoil viscous drag reduction alone. A 2-D airfoil analysis approach was adopted, associated with an idealized variable camber mechanism based on elastic deformation and surface extension. Using a direct function optimization program coupled to a viscous-inviscid airfoil analysis routine, optimized variable camber configurations were obtained for several weight conditions of a typical transport aircraft along a sub-critical cruise mission leg. Independent runs were executed considering only trailing and both leading and trailing-edge camber variation and, for each of them, an integrated range parameter has been obtained, proportional to the maximum possible aircraft range. Results indicate that the range increases up to 7.03% over the base airfoil that could be reached with camber variation in the trailing edge region only, and up to 24.6% when leading edge adaptation was considered simultaneously. However, pressure distribution results indicate that the high leading-edge curvatures required for that would probably decrease cruise critical Mach. On other hand, the trailing-edge only approach may offer better conditions for supercritical cruise.