Numerical and experimental validation of a morphed wing geometry using Price-Païdoussis wind-tunnel testing

Botez, RM; Koreanschi, A; Sugar-Gabor, O

Abstract

An experimental validation of an optimised wing geometry in the Price-Païdoussis subsonic wind tunnel is presented. Two wing models were manufactured using optimised glass fibre composite and tested at three speeds and various angle-of-attack. These wing models were constructed based on the original aerofoil shape of the ATR 42 aircraft and an optimised version of the same aerofoil for a flight condition of Mach number equal to 0.1 and angle-of-attack of 0°. The aerofoil's optimisation was realised using an ‘in-house’ genetic algorithm coupled with a cubic spline reconstruction routine, and was analysed using XFoil aerodynamic solver. The optimisation was concentrated on improving the laminar flow on the upper surface of the wing, between 10% and 70% of the chord. XFoil-predicted pressure distributions were compared with experimental data obtained in the wind tunnel. The transition position was estimated from the experimental pressure data using a second derivative methodology and was compared with the transition predicted by XFoil code. The results have shown the agreement between numerical and experimental data. The wind-tunnel tests have shown that the improvement of the laminar flow of the optimised wing is higher than the value predicted numerically.

Citation

Botez, R., Koreanschi, A., & Sugar-Gabor, O. (2016). Numerical and experimental validation of a morphed wing geometry using Price-Païdoussis wind-tunnel testing. Aeronautical Journal, 120(1227), 757-795. https://doi.org/10.1017/aer.2016.30

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Online Publication Date: May 18, 2016
• Publication Date: May 18, 2016
• Deposit Date: Mar 10, 2017
• Journal: The Aeronautical Journal
• Print ISSN: 0001-9240
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press (CUP)
• Volume: 120
• Issue: 1227
• Pages: 757-795
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/aer.2016.30
• Publisher URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/aer.2016.30
• Related Public URLs: https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/aeronautical-journal
• Additional Information: Additional Information : The authors' names were originally presented in the wrong order. A notice detailing this has been published and the error rectified in the online PDF and HTML copies.