Numerical analysis of the effects of winglet shapes on wing performance

This studypresents CFD 3-D winglets analysis on a civil aircraft wing ofNACA23016airfoil for root wing section, NACA 23014airfoil for mean wing section and NACA 23012airfoil for tip wing section. These airfoils were considered as 4 m chord length at root section, 2.8 m chord length at mean section and 1.6 m chord length at tip wing section at which is added the winglet with the same profile at tip section with 45 degree cant angle. A CFD study to evaluatethe aerodynamics characteristics of lift coefficient CL, drag coefficient CD and lift to drag ratio, L/D lift, pathlines and pressure contours is presented.All wings are simulated at a subsonic Mach number of (0.2) and ambient conditions pressure of (1 bar) and temperature of (15o C) at sea level. The wing with winglet blended connection has approximately the lift to drag ratio, CL/CD range varies from (11- 12.4)% with different air stream angles more than wing without winglet. The wing model with sharp edge winglet has lift to drag ratio, CL/CD range varies from (6.4- 8.2) % with different air stream angles less than the wing without winglet. CFD results proved that the wing with blended winglet is more efficient than the wing with sharp edge.