Background on Aircraft Aerodynamics

The Aircraft consists of main three parts

(1)

Fuselage

The fuselage is a non-lifting body which means it doesn't contribute the lift of the aircraft.it main purpose is : 1- Carry the Aircraft payload 2- Carry the propulsion system (In case of RC and small aircrafts The main contribution of the fuselage to the aircraft aerodynamic is to the drag. A method to calculate the fuselage drag is described in the following Reference "Airplane Aerodynamics and Performance" by Dr. Jan Roskam pages 157 through 161. The value of the drag is divided to 3 parts a- The zero lift drag b- The drag of the base area (Not very important for RC)

c- The drag due to lift (negligible for most configurations and only exist for very special configurations) Manly the drag is function of the fuselage length to fuselage diameter ,the ratio of the fuselage wetted area to the wing area and the flight Reynolds Number (Refuselage and Rewing) taken the characteristic length to be the fuselage length for fuselage and mean aerodynamic chord for wing. Using a blunt nose fuselage greatly increases the drag value ,so streamlined fuselage nose the best practice for fuselage design.

Calculation of the Drag

( ( Where ( )

) )

og

(2)

Wing

The Wing is main lifting body of the aircraft. The Design Parameters can be divided to two main parts: 1- Planform Parameters (Projected in x-y plane) Shown in the following figure:

Mainly the wing Planform is defined by four design parameters and the rest are obtained from geometry. The four design parameters are: abcdTip Chord Root Chord Span Quarter Chord sweep angle

The tip and root chord could be replaced by the non-dimensional parameters: Aspect Ratio (AR) and Taper Ratio (Z) where

Another parameter of the wing planform is the mean geometric chord:

( ) 2- Profile parameters(Projected in x-z plane): a- Airfoil Type Will Discussed in the next section. b- Twist Angle distribution (Wash Out/In) A Wash out/in is usually used in two cases: 1) The wing has bad tip stall characteristics due to either very low taper ration (Z <0.5) or low value of airfoil CLmax. 2) The configuration is tailless aircraft and we need to reduce the wing CM0 for the aircraft to be trimmed at the design angle of attack without reducing the value of total lift very much. c- Aerodynamic twist distribution (Airfoil Spline) An aerodynamic twist or (Airfoil Spline) is used a- In the case of very high Aspect Ratio. That is by using airfoils with high thickness near the root for better structure safety since its the most oaded area in the aircraft b- Improve stall characteristic by using airfoils of high CLmax near tip. d- Dihedral Dihedral is defined as the angle between wing span and y-axis as viewed from the zy plane. Dihedral is applied purely for lateral stability reasons.

Airfoil Selection:
Before knowing how select an airfoil we first need to know what kind of data we need to know about the airfoil in order to make a selection. Airfoil Data usually include 3 main curves: a- The Lift curve This represents the airfoil coefficient of lift as it varies with alpha (Angle of attack). From the curve we can get 2 very important pieces of information. (1) Zero-lift angle of attack and Coefficient of lift at zero angle of attack. The values are directly proportional with the airfoil max camber and camber distribution. These values are also measure of the airfoil as a source of lift. (2) The airfoil max lift coefficient and the stalling angle of attack. The value is directly proportional to the camber and the Reyno ds number

b- The Drag Curve (Drag Polar) What we need to know from the curve is: (1) The order of magnitude of the values of the drag (2) The behavior of the drag with increasing CL (alpha) The airfoil drag could give us an insight on what we expect the wing drag to be. The Drag is mainly function of: A) Airfoil max thickness. B) Airfoil Thickness Distribution C) The Reyno ds Number

c- The Moment Curve In the airfoil data usually two moment curves are given. But we are interested with the moment about the aerodynamic center. Unlike the drag we are interested in the moment as: Value Sign Order of magnitude. The moment is mainly and almost purely a function of the airfoil max camber and camber distribution.

Another question is where do we get the airfoil data?

There are two ways to do that: i. ii. Experimental Data (which is the most reliable but not always available) Numerical Solution A. Using Panel-Boundary Layer Coupled Solvers (XFOIL) (GOOD, FAST and RELIABLE) B. Using CFD (least reliable since it requires a lot of time for solution and great experience to obtained reliable data)

Now back to the main question: HOW TO SELECT AN AIRFOIL?? Well this depend on the type aircraft you are trying make but for most conventional aircraft we choose the airfoil with highest lift and lowest drag and moment.

Other configurations present more demanding criteria for example for tailless aircrafts the moment criterion take priority over lift and drag and for micro air vehicles (MAV) the max lift is of the highest priority. The Solution of the WING Include the following results:

Aerodynamic force
I. Lift Wing Total Lift at certain AOA or Side s ip ang e ) Wing Spanwise Lift distribution It gives a clear picture on the distribution of the load across the span and also is used to obtain the wing stall characteristics as we will see later. Wing Induced Drag (Drag due to Lift or Drag due to finite Effect(3D effect ) ) This drag can fitted in to a quadratic function of lift which can be reduced to a parabolic model. The coefficients K3 and K2 are very small and usually neglected which gives the parabolic model. The coefficient ( K1 ) is a function of Aspect Ration such that

II.

Drag

As AR then K 0 which is 2D case. Wing Zero Lift Coefficient

CDow Rwf

R C SS
LS fw

wett

1 L t / c 100 t / c
4

Where: 1. Rwf: wing/fuselage interference factor see previous figure 2. Rls = lifting surface correction ( )

3. Cfw = flat plate friction coefficient of the wing To judge whether the flow is a turbulent or a laminar one the wings Reynolds number should be firstly calculated. Where

C Mean geometric chord

The laminar flow friction coefficient is given by:

And the Turbulent flow friction coefficient is given by

og

( ) ( ) ()

By Substituting in the Equation above The Wing Zero Lift Drag is obtained
CDow Rwf

R C SS
LS fw

wett

1 L t / c 100 t / c
4

Stall Characteristics Model

Wing Stall characteristics are obtained by comparing the Spanwise distribution of cl with the spanwise distribution of clmax . The clmax distribution will not be constant owing to the changing Reynolds Number across wing and hence the stall may not start at the point where Cl is greatest. The procedure embraces plotting both the cl distribution and clmax distribution on one sheet and increasing wing CL progressively until the cl curve touches that of the clmax . The spanwise location of the tangency is then the spanwise location of the start of the stall. In General its desirable to have the stall start somewhat out from the root but inboard of the innermost part of the aileron so the lateral control remains good. A stall that is too strong at the root may cause undesirable tail buffeting. The above Method has not been very successful for sweptback wing since it makes no provision for the three dimensional effect of the boundary layer flow Currently no solution to this problem has been advanced, other than general experience to the effect that the stall usually appears earlier than calculated.

Aerodynamic Moments I. Pitching Moment Coefficient (Cm) Wing Pitching moment coefficient at certain AOA or Side s ip ang e
And so The derivatives with and can a so be obtained

The pitching moment coefficient at zero angle of attach NB: Stability Requires that and

II.

Rolling Moment Coefficient (Cl) Wing Rolling moment coefficient at certain AOA or Side s ip ang e
And so The derivatives with can a so be obtained

III.

Yawing Moment Coefficient (Cn) Wing Yawing moment coefficient at certain AOA or Side s ip ang e
And so The derivatives with can a so be obtained