Computational Study on Wingtip Fluid Injection for Enhancing Wing Performance

Wingtip vortices arise from the pressure difference between the top and bottom surfaces of the wing, and stimulate downwash of the airflow. This results in additional drag, known as lift-induced drag, which significantly adds to the overall drag on the aircraft. It also results in the reduction of effective lift. Several wingtip devices such as winglets are used to improve wing performance by the mitigation of wingtip vortices. The goal of this study is to analyse a method of increasing the lift to drag ratio of finite wings, at transonic conditions. A non-conventional method of improving performance, wingtip fluid injection is studied. Computational fluid dynamics tools were used to examine the improvement in wing performance, and it was observed that a higher lift to drag ratio was present for wings with fluid injection. This can be translated into better fuel economy, higher range or more payload capacity.