High Angle-Of-Attack Aerodynamic Characteristics of Crescent and Elliptic Wings
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https://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp?R=19890014047 2020-03-20T03:17:00+00:00Z '- I i High Angle-of-Attack Aerodynamic Characteristics of Crescent and Elliptic Wings C. P. van Dam University of California, Davis, CA Department of Mechanical Engineering Division of Aeronautical Science and Engineering Final Report NASA Research Grant NAG-1-732 May 1989 4 IUA-CR- 18U9 92 1 HIGB UCLE-CP-4TTACB N89-23410 AEBODPYAMIC CflIEAC%~lISTXCSC€ CBESCBliT AND ILLXPlIC OIYGS Final EefOrt (California Uaiv.) 38 I; CSCL OIA Unclas 63/02 02 109U3 1 Abstract Static longitudinal and lateral -directional forces and moments were measured for elliptic-and crescent-wing models at high angles of attack in the NASA Langley 14- By 22-Ft Subsonic Tunnel. The forces and moments were obtained for an angle-of-attack range including stall and post-stall conditions at a Reynolds number based on the average wing chord of about 1.8 million. Flow-visualization photographs using a mixture of oil and titanium-dioxide were also taken for several incidence angles. The force and moment data and the flow-visualization results indicated that the crescent wing model with its highly swept tips produced much better high-angle-of-attack aerodynamic characteristics than the elliptic model. Leading-edge separation-induced vortex flow over the highly swept tips of the crescent wing is thought to produce this improved behavior at high angles of attack. The unique.planform design could result in safer and more efficient low-speed airplanes. 2 Nomencl ature AR aspect rat i 0, b2/S b wing span [ft] C chord length [ft] 'av average chord length, S/b [ft] sectional lift coefficient, lift per c1 unit span/( q,c) root chord length [ftl cL lift coefficient, 1 ift/(qm Sref) C 1 i ft curve slope, aCL/aa [per deg] L,a roll i ng moment coefficient, rolling c1 \ momenti (9, 'ref 'ref' pitching moment coefficient, pitching moment/(qm 'ref 'ref) slope of pitching-moment-coefficient curve, aC,,,/aa [per deg] 'n 'n yawing moment coefficient, yawing moment/(qm 'ref 'ref) freestream dynamic pressure [lb/ft 2 3 2 wing area [ft ] Y spanwise distance from wing root [ft] a angle of attack [deg] B sideslip angle [deg] rl nondimensional spanwise station, y/(b/2) Subscripts: max maxi mum ref reference It 3 Introduction In 1971, Kuchemann discussed the possibility of designing wings that combine vortical flows with classical attached flows.' While admitting "that such designs must be more risky and are more likely to fail," Kuchemann suggested that the benefits justified abandonment of the classical concept of maintaining flow over the entire wing throughout the whole flight regime.* This idea of combined vortex flows and classical attached flows has been integrated in the wing design of highly maneuverable military aircraft; all current generation fighter aircraft make use of this concept in one way or the other. However, in the design of low speed and transport aircraft, the concept of maintaining attached flow over the entire wing throughout the flight regime (from cruise to near stall) has been adhered to. In this philosophy, flow separation is avoided - sometimes at great cost - until angles of attack close to stall, when trailing-edge separation is designed to occur over the inboard portion of the wing. The outboard region of the wing is designed to maintain attached flow until post-stall angles of attack to maximize roll stability and control and to minimize the chances of stall-spin entry. To meet the design objectives in the framework of the classical attached- flow approach several options are available. First, wing sweep is kept to a minimum to reduce tip loading and, thus, the danger of tip stall. Conventional aft sweep puts the outboard portion of the wing in the upwash field of the inner part of the wing and, as a result, the outer part carries more lift for a given angle of attack. Flow separation over the tip region must be minimized; therefore, the wing is swept only as required to minimize the compressibility drag rise at cruise conditions. Wing twist can also be applied to reduce the 4 aerodynamic loading over the outboard portion of a swept or unswept wing. However, a significant induced-drag penalty at cruise often results because of deviations from an optimal spanwise-load distribution. Wing section shape can be varied in the spanwise direction with high airfoils employed in the outer wing region. This design option may result in a viscous drag penalty at cruise conditions because airfoil performance at these conditions is sacrificed to improve the high-angle-of-attack 1 ifting characteristics. Wing tip chords are designed to be sufficiently large to avoid low tip-chord Reynolds numbers and the attendant difficulties with flow separation. Finally, wing leading- edge modifications such as slots, slats, or flaps can be incorporated to improve the aerodynamic characteristics of wings at high-angle-of-attack. These systems often result in increased complexity, maintenance, cost and sometimes in degraded aerodynamic cruise performance. In recent years, the fixed outboard leading-edge droop has proven to significantly increase the stall departure and spin resistance of low-speed aircraft. Although geometrically simple, this modification may result in reduced aerodynamic performance at cruise conditions. Also, for wings with a relatively blunt leading edge or for high-aspect-ratio wings, a leading-edge droop is not always effective to increase stall departure and spin resistance. In this report, a crescent wing planform which combines attached flow over the inboard portion of the wing with vortical flow over the outboard portion of the wing is examined e~perimentally.~Wing sweep is used to induce separation along the rounded leading-edge of the outboard wing region. The resulting vortical flow over this portion of the wing produces a significant amount of lift and, consequently, improved lateral stability and controllability at stall and post-stall conditions. Also, the wing tip with vortex flow tends to . 5 generate a nose-down pitching moment at stall. However, at cruise and climb conditions the flow must be attached over the entire wing to minimize drag. It should be noted that the highly swept tip concept can also be beneficial for wings of high-speed airplanes’ and blades of helicopters6 . This report presents the results of a wind-tunnel experiment which was conducted to evaluate this design concept for moderate-to-high aspect ratio wings first introduced in Ref. 4 (also see Ref. 7). Experiment A wind-tunnel experiment was conducted in the NASA Langley 14- By 22-Ft Subsonic Tunnel to investigate the influence of wing planform shape on the high-angle-of-attack aerodynamic characteristics. In Fig. 1, a plan view is shown of the elliptic and crescent wing configurations investigated. Fig. 2 provides a photograph of the model and the sting mount used in the present 2 test. Both wings had identical wing area (S = 6.47 ft ), wing span (b = 6.74 ft), spanwise chord distribution (constant for center panel and elliptic for outboard panel), aspect ratio (AR=7), and airfoil section shape in the freestream direction (NACA 0012). Also, the models had zero wing twist and zero dihedral. The only difference between the two models was the planform shape. The crescent wing had a quarter-chord line which is curved rearward, whereas the elliptic wing had a straight, unswept quarter-chord line. The center body (body diameter is 5 in.) and the center wing panel (see Fig. 1) were obtained from an existing variable-wing-twist model .8 This dictated the root chord length and section shape for the outboard wing panel. The crescent shape was originally developed to investigate induced drag and is a further development of wings with discontinuous sheared tips.4” 6 Calculations" and prel iminary wind-tunnel results indicate that the crescent wing shape generates a lower induced drag than the classical unswept elliptic wing for a given lift and span at attached-flow conditions. The dynamic pressure and the unit-Reynolds number of the freestream during the measurements were approximately 100 lb/ft2 and 1.85 mill ion/ft, respectively. For the average chord of slightly less than 1 ft, a test Reynolds number of 1.8 million was realized. The rounded leading edge of the wing maximizes the leading-edge suction force and, thus, the performance at cruise and climb conditions. The separation-induced vortex flow is very much Reynolds number dependent for wings with a rounded leading edge. l1 The test Reynolds number was maximized to obtain values that approached the range of Reynolds numbers encountered by low-speed aircraft at high lift coefficients and to avoid low Reynolds-number flow behavior which could have made the results different to interpret. The force-and-moment measurements for both configurations were obtained with a six-component balance mounted in the model center body (Fig. 2). Boundary-layer transition was fixed on both models at 5% of the chord (in the freestream direction) over the upper and lower surfaces along the entire span. The width of the trip strips was 0.125 in. Over the crescent-wing model, attachment-line trip strips were located around the leading edge at about 9 = 0.98 (Fig. 3). These trips were oriented normal to the leading edge to ensure transition of the leading-edge attachment-1 ine boundary layer along the highly swept tips at low angles of attack.12 On the center body the transition was fixed circumferentially at 3.0 in. downstream of the nose. The models were tested for an angle-of-attack range from 00 to 21" (tunnel constraint) at zero sideslip angle.