Lift and Drag of Non-conventional Wings at Subsonic Speeds and Zero Angle of Attack - An Experimental Investigation

Various non-conventional wing development shows potential in increasing the aerodynamic performance of airplanes. If the non-conventional wing only improves the aerodynamic performance by a small margin, conventional wing is still a better option for airline operators. This provides opportunity to continue research on non-conventional configurations that can greatly saves the fuel consumption. This research was conducted to examine the lift and drag of non-conventional wings at low subsonic speed and low angle of attack. Analytical method based on DATCOM was used to calculate the lift and drag coefficients of non-conventional cranked wing for comparison with experimental results obtained experimentally using Taylor's wind tunnel (TWT). Experimental lift coefficient shows similar values with the analytical results but experimental drag coefficient had an average difference of 44%. The experimental setup and calibration of TWT were verified and further case studies on nonconventional wing model featuring trailing edge notches were carried out. Analysis of the results from case studies shows that generally the effect of varying the number of notches only had significant effect on drag reduction if the notch depth was higher. For flight condition that does not exceed 4 degrees angle of attack, lower number of notches at higher notch depth had the best aerodynamic performance. On the other hand, for flight condition that requires cruise angle of attack that exceeds 4 degrees, higher number of notches at higher notch depth had the best aerodynamic performance.