Computational analysis and validation in wind tunnel of wing-tip devices for unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV)

Abstract

Summary . The application of UAV systems within the civil and military aeronautical market encouraged the development of options that increase the performance of this type of aircraft. This paper´s objective is to analyze the aerodynamic behavior of a wing with and without wingtip devices (winglets) for a UAV, through the CFD software Tdyn and wind tunnel tests validation. The lift (Cl) and drag (Cd) coefficients of the wing without winglets were compared to the wing with different curvature winglets at specific angles of attack for maximum Cl/Cd ratio. The results showed that the wing with a winglet can offer an improvement in the Cl/Cd coefficient of 4.5% compared to the wing without any other type of device on the wingtip.