Numerical Analysis of Aerodynamics Performance of Wingtip Modifications on Low Reynolds Number Flight
摘要
Numerical investigation of a wing with wingtip modification of symmetrical airfoil NACA0012 is enhancing the aerodynamics performance in various applications such as wind turbine blades, Aircraft wing design and UAV’s. Using Ansys Fluent, the numerical analysis is done for a plain and wing with blended winglet with cant angle of 60°. The turbulence model considered for simulation is SST k-omega model. The boundary conditions taken for the CFD domain are pressure inlet velocity out, far field, and model considered as wall. The objective of the analysis is to examine the NACA0012 airfoil and the impact of various wingtip modifications on the aerodynamics forces (lift and drag), and stall characteristics of an aerofoil at low Reynolds numbers at various angles of attack such as 0–24° with interval of 6°. The numerical simulations were conducted using a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) software package. The results shows that the winglets significantly reduce drag and delay stall. The study provides insight into the potential benefits of wingtip modifications for low Reynolds number flight and could help in designing more efficient small-scale unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs).