International Journal of Innovative Technology and Exploring Engineering (IJITEE)

ISSN: 2278-3075 (Online), Volume-9 Issue-6, April 2020

Computational Analysis and Optimization of

Boxwing Aircraft for Reducing Induced Drag
V.Yamini Anoosha, Kushal D Gowda, Saathvik Bhat, Manjunath Sagar, Vijay Jaya Vignesh

Abstract: The paper describes the importance of To mitigate the various negative impacts in the environment
reducing induced drag built up due to tip vortices which is and to improve the efficiency factors of commercial aircrafts
caused by the lift produced by the aircraft wings. In this many new designs and modifications of the wing and
paper the effectiveness of boxwing is improved by reducing winglet region are carried out. One of the main upcoming
the induced drag on the boxwing. With this the practicality type is the Boxwing configuration aircraft. Boxwing has
of boxwing rises to new level.The airfoil impact on the attracted the attention of researches due to its claimed merits
boxwing is studied and different airfoils are selected of induced drag. It is claimed to have a potential of
accordingly. Supercritical airfoils are analyzed and its improved fuel efficiency and reduced direct operating costs
importance is applied to boxwing as their practicality is have been other reasons to investigate this configuration.
observed. Here the effect of different supercritical airfoils Induced drag accounts for approximately 40% of the Total
when used for the front wing, aft wing and winglet drag during cruise flight and up to 90% during takeoff. It is
according to their functionality are analyzed in the paper an inviscid phenomenon and originates in the opposed span
using sophisticated software. Then by selecting a specified wise flow patterns on the upper and lower wing surface that
commercial aircraft we can check the normal conventional is the result of the span wise pressure gradients of a finite
wing computational results comparing the same aircraft wing generating lift. The theory behind the boxwing
with boxwing configuration on it. By this comparison we working is not a new observation but, it has been known
can determine by what percentage we would decrease the from long time. The main reason of not being relatively
induced drag with the usage of boxwing configuration. unexplored is in terms of design knowledge and
The following work is done to ensure that the boxwing is understanding fields. One of the main reasons of not being
applied into practical aircrafts such commercial aircrafts codified is due to the interaction between aerodynamics,
hence we have used a commercial aircraft as the base to structures and other aircraft characteristic function of basic
determine boxwing effectiveness in a commercial geometry parameters. Much safer and best observation can
perspective also. With the results of this paper one can be done as in contrast to conventional configurations, which
decrease the induced drag to an extent where the uses of are extremely well understood and have the underlying
the boxwing in commercial aircrafts will exceed that of the theory as well as data available, as from these data it helps
conventional winged aircrafts. In future, its application to us to pursue when considering a boxwing configuration.
military aircraft can also be deduced as supercritical The wing weight is a key and crucial component in
airfoils are also being used in fighter jets. understanding the strengths and weakness of any conceptual
configuration, in the case of Boxwing when Theoretical and
Keywords: Airfoil Impact On The Boxwing. Computational observations are made it is required for the
calculation purpose.
I. INTRODUCTION Another key area of interest is due to the availability of
many design studies focused on one specific configuration
For achieving new heights in the Aircraft industry, there
or a specific combination of geometric parameters and then
are many new design modification ideas being developed
heavily analyzed that configuration using computationally,
for this purpose.
high fidelity tools and methodology.
Revised Manuscript Received on April 30, 2020. A.. Induced Drag
* Correspondence Author
V.Yamini Anoosha*, Assistant professor in Aeronautical Engineering Induced drag is low at high speeds, but at low speeds it
department, Dayananda Sagar College of Engineering, Bangalore,
comprises over half the total drag. Induced drag also
Karnataka, India. Email Id: [email protected]
Kushal D Gowda, Department of Aeronautical Engineering, Dayananda depends on the strength of the trailing vortices and it has
Sagar College of Engineering, Bangalore, Karnataka, India. Email Id: - been proved that at a high aspect ratio wing reduces the
[email protected] strength of the vortices for a given lift force.
Saathvik Bhat, Department of Aeronautical Engineering, Dayananda
Sagar College of Engineering, Bangalore, Karnataka, India. Email Id: -
Winglets: These are small vertical airfoils which form
[email protected] part of the wing tip. Shaped and angled to the induced
Manjunath Sagar, Department of Aeronautical Engineering, airflow, they generate a small forward force. Winglets partly
Dayananda Sagar College of Engineering, Bangalore, Karnataka, India. block the air flowing from the bottom to top surface of the
Email Id: [email protected]
Vijay Jaya Vignesh, Department of Aeronautical Engineering,
wing, reducing the tip vortex. In addition, the small vortex
Dayananda Sagar College of Engineering, Bangalore, Karnataka, India. generated by the winglet interacts and further reduces the
Email Id: [email protected] strength of the main wing tip vortex.
Wing tip Shape: The shape of the wing tip can affect the
© The Authors. Published by Blue Eyes Intelligence Engineering and
Sciences Publication (BEIESP). This is an open access article under the
strength of the tip vortices, and designs such as turned down
CC-BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc- or turned up wing tips have been used to reduce induced
nd/4.0/) drag.

Retrieval Number: F4658049620/2020©BEIESP Published By:

DOI: 10.35940/ijitee.F4658.049620 Blue Eyes Intelligence Engineering
Journal Website: www.ijitee.org 1966 & Sciences Publication
 Computational Analysis and Optimization of Boxwing Aircraft for Reducing Induced Drag

Energy or thrust extraction from the tip vortex and alteration potential to provide dramatic savings in fuel consumption
of the tip boundary conditions are some other methods for relative to the conventional cantilever wing.
reducing Induced drag. [7]Stephen A. Andrews Ruben E. Perez: The literature
paper details about the Box-wing aircraft designs and their
B. . Project Background
potential to achieve significant reductions in fuel
The advantages of the Box wing configuration were consumption.
known since 1920s, based on the work initially done by [8]Sriram K. Rallabhandi, Erol Cagatay ,Dimitri N.
Ludwig Prandtl and Max Munk, where they concluded that Mavris: The literature deals with the creation and utilization
the best way to reduce the amount of induced drag produced of accurate drag polars is essential in the aircraft sizing and
due to the velocity of the free vortices was to have the synthesis process.
system involving vertical and horizontal wings. [9]D.Schikantz, D.Scholz: The literature helps to detail the
Prandtl then built on with his ‘Best Wing System’ where induced drag of box wing aircraft. The theoretical
he proposed that a multi-wing configuration with equal total foundations of static longitudinal stability and controllability
lift distribution on both wings and a certain lift distribution are presented and applied to the box wing aircraft. The
on the vertical winglets would be the most efficient wing results are interpreted and put into practice with the help of a
platform for reducing induced drag. The Boeing 757-200 medium range box wing aircraft based on the airbus A320.
has been by far the most popular 757 variant, with a total of
913 built over the course of its manufacture. The efficient III. METHEDOLOGY
turbofan engines allow take-offs from relatively high
altitudes and short runways, and with a maximum range of A.. Selection Of Aircraft
6300 km (3900 miles), they are well suited for both For applying box wing configuration, we have selected the
domestic and transcontinental flights. The wings are fuselage and empennage section of the Boeing 757-200
optimized to reduce drag, thereby increasing fuel efficiency. commercial aircraft. Total length of aircraft (including nose,
C. . Ongoing Project fuselage and empennage) is 47.3 meters, tail height is 13.56
meters and the empty weight is 57840 kg. The wings are
The Green Flight Challenge which started past year, is modified according to the requirement for the box wing
NASA’s Centennial Challenges program as asked builders configuration.
to create ultra-efficient aircrafts, to find new ways to use the
layers of uncluttered wing design so that a better future for B. . Selection Of Airfoils
commercial flights is obtained. Airfoils are always selected depending on the airflow
A Rolls Royce Liberty Works Ultra Fan Engine uses conditions in which they have to operate, airfoil shapes,
advanced turbofan technology to maximize efficiency, description of the flow around the airfoils with increasing
achieving a bypass ratio nearly five times greater than that angle of attack upon reaching a critical value and the effect
of current engines. This is ongoing boxwing design by the of roughness of airfoil surfaces at critical angle of attack.
use of advanced lightweight composite materials. For this purpose, we analyzed each airfoil and obtained the
necessary results through XFLR Plotter.
II. LITERATURE REVIEW
1)KC 135 Winglet Airfoil ;-
1]Sahana D S, Abdul Aabid: In this literature we learnt
that Boxwing configurations is an unconventional nonplanar
configuration comparable to a conventional wing whose
wings are connected in the tip by vertical winglets.
[2]Hugo Gagnon and David W. Zingg: this study
investigates the aerodynamics trade offs of a box wing
aircraft configurations using high fidelity Figure 1:-KC 135 Winglet Airfoil
aerodynamics optimization.
[3]Julian Schirra , William Bissonnette , and Gotz
Bramesfeld: This literature we take staggered box
wings where the predictions of induced drag that rely
on common potential flow methods can be of limited
accuracy.
[4]Adeel Khalid,Parth Kumar: In the literature we
understand that the market for aircraft and aircraft transport
has increased tremendously, and this has resulted in an
increase in emissions, fuel consumption, and the cost. In
order to reverse this increasing trend, various companies
have researched methods of reducing drag in order to
maximize the lift to drag ratio
[5]Ishan Roy Salam: A conceptual design analysis Figure 2:- CLvs CD Graph
methodology and toolchain was developed for At Re 5*106 the minimum value of CD is 0.0065 and at Re
multidisciplinary analysis of box-wing aircraft. 6*106 the minimum value of CD is 0.
[6]Timothy Chau and David W. Zingg: The box wing is
an unconventional aircraft configuration that has the

Retrieval Number: F4658049620/2020©BEIESP Published By:

DOI: 10.35940/ijitee.F4658.049620 Blue Eyes Intelligence Engineering
Journal Website: www.ijitee.org 1967 & Sciences Publication
 International Journal of Innovative Technology and Exploring Engineering (IJITEE)
ISSN: 2278-3075 (Online), Volume-9 Issue-6, April 2020

Figure 3:- CL vs Alpha Graph Figure 7:- CL vs Alpha Graph

The CL reaches a value of 0.82 and 0.83 at 3.2 0 angle of The CL reaches a value of 0.62 and 0.66 at 3.2 0 angle of
attack at Re 5*106 and Re 6*106 respectively. attack at Re 5*106 and Re 6*106 respectively.

Figure 4:- CL/CD vs Alpha Figure 8:- CL/CD vs Alpha

The CL/CD reaches the maximum value of 0 at 5*106 Re at The CL/CD reaches the maximum value of 53 at 5*10 6 Re at
all angles. The CL/CD reaches a maximum value of 1.1o. The CL/CD reaches a maximum value of 61 at 6*106 Re
1.35*1011 at 6*106 Re at -0.3o. at 0.8o.
2) SC20710 Airfoil ;- 3)SC20714 Airfoil ;-

Figure 5:-SC20710 Airfoil Figure 9:-:-SC20714 Airfoil

Figure 10:- CLvs CD Graph

Figure 6:- CLvs CD Graph At Re 5*106 the minimum value of CD is 0.0091 and at Re
At Re 5*106 the minimum value of CD is 0.0078 and at Re 6*106 the minimum value of CD is 0.008.
6*106 the minimum value of CD is 0.007.

Retrieval Number: F4658049620/2020©BEIESP Published By:

DOI: 10.35940/ijitee.F4658.049620 Blue Eyes Intelligence Engineering
Journal Website: www.ijitee.org 1968 & Sciences Publication
 Computational Analysis and Optimization of Boxwing Aircraft for Reducing Induced Drag

 Data for the design of Boeing 757-200 was taken from

Modern Airlines website.
 To design according to design details, we have opted
Autodesk inventor 2019.
 The model has not been scaled down. Wing span of the
original aircraft 38m is designed the same.
 Fuselage of aircraft was developed and modified by
sheet metal sculpting process.
 From the midpoint root airfoil, we take a 19m line and
insert another line from same point 25° angle for the
sweep purpose.
 Then the tip airfoil is placed at these lines end point by
main wing is lofted and this the developed.
 Then the wing is dihedral is kept to 5°. Based on the
Figure 11:- CL vs Alpha Graph Boeing 757-200 design we have designed the vertical
The CL reaches a value of 0.71 and 0.72 at 3.2 0 angle of and horizontal stabilizer.
attack at Re 5*106 and Re 6*106 respectively.
Variant BOEING 757-200
Dimensions

Length 47.3 meters

Width 3.76 meters

Wing Span 38 meters with 250sweep

Height 13.6 meters

Root chord 8.2 meters

Tip chord 1.73 meters

Figure 12:- CL/CD vs Alpha
The CL/CD reaches the maximum value of 61 at 5*106 Re at 2)Computational Results And Disscussion
0.9o. The CL/CD reaches a maximum value of 66 at 6*106 Re Boundary Conditions:
at 0.6o. PARAMETERS VALUES/TYPES
After obtaining all the results we decided to design an Altitude 11,000m(36089.239ft)
Aircraft model replicating Boeing 757-200 model with a Pressure 22633 Pa
conventional wing as first case. Then another Boeing757- Velocity 250 m/s
200 model with Boxwing configuration where all the main Temperature 216.65 K
wing, aft wing and winglets have different airfoils. Flow type Laminar and Turbulent
IV. MODELLING and ANALYSIS
A. . Normal Boeing 757-200
1) Design Of Boeing 757-200:

Figure14:- Pressure contour of Boeing 757-200

Figure 13:- Boeing757-200 model

Retrieval Number: F4658049620/2020©BEIESP Published By:

DOI: 10.35940/ijitee.F4658.049620 Blue Eyes Intelligence Engineering
Journal Website: www.ijitee.org 1969 & Sciences Publication
 International Journal of Innovative Technology and Exploring Engineering (IJITEE)
ISSN: 2278-3075 (Online), Volume-9 Issue-6, April 2020

 Data for the design of Boeing 757-200 was taken

from Modern Airlines website.
 To design according to design details, we have
opted Autodesk inventor 2019.
 The model has not been scaled down. Wing span of
the original aircraft 38m is designed the same.
 Fuselage of aircraft was developed and modified by
sheet metal sculpting process.
 From the midpoint root airfoil, we take a 19m line
and insert another line from same point 25° angle for the
sweep purpose.
 Then the tip airfoil is placed at these lines end point
by main wing is lofted and this the developed.
 Then the wing is dihedral is kept to 5°. Based on
the Boeing 757-200 design we have designed the vertical
Figure 15:-Vortex formation in Boeing 757-200 and horizontal stabilizer.
3) Boeing 757-200 Calculation  Then placing the same airfoil at the vertical
Lift, l=330845.5142N stabilizer bottom, from where we would like to design
Drag, D=181633.8606N Boxwing.
Maximum Shear=184.375Pa  From the midpoint of the airfoil we would draw a
Maximum dynamic pressure=16471.96Pa line of 19meters to winglet plane on the same plane. Then
Wing area, S= (168.42+5.82)*2=348.48m we would create another plane at 0.5 meters plane.
Density=0.365 at 11,000 meters altitude in air  Then we would loft the entire aft wing till the
CL=L/(0.5*Density*Velocity2*S) winglet plane and with help of revolved protrusion we join
=330845.51/(0.5*0.365*2502*348.48) the main wing and aft wing. This takes place in the region of
CL=0.083 the 0.5 meter plane.
CD=D/(0.5*Density*Velocity2*S) Variant BOEING757-200 WITH
= 181633.8602/(0.5*0.365*2502*348.48) BOXWING
CD=0.045
CDo= Maximum Shear/Maximum Dynamic pressure
Length 47.3 meters
=184.375/1647.96
CDo= 0.011
CD = CDo+CDi Width 3.76 meters
Therefore,
CDi=CD-CDo
=0.045-0.011 Wing Span 38 meters
CDi=0.033
Overall Discussion About Boeing 757-200:
Height 13.6 meters
In the above results we observed that Induced drag is
occupies almost 73.3% of the total drag. Then we also
observe the tip vortex formed at the wings is a very large Main wing Root chord 8.2 meters
region which results in the formation of high induced drag
in the aircraft.
B. . Boxwing Boeing 757-200 With Different Airfoils Main wing Tip chord 1.73 meters

1)Design Of Boxwing Boeing 757-200

For this design we used different airfoils at the Main wing- Aft wing Root chord 6.4 meters
SC20710, Aft wing-SC20714 and at the Winglets-KC135.
Aft wing Tip chord 1.73 meters

2)Computational Results And Discussion

Boundary Conditions:
PARAMETERS VALUES/TYPES
Altitude 11,000m(36089.239ft)
Pressure 22633 Pa
Velocity 250 m/s
Temperature 216.65 K
Flow type Laminar and Turbulent

Figure 16 :-Boeing757-200 model with Boxwing

Retrieval Number: F4658049620/2020©BEIESP Published By:

DOI: 10.35940/ijitee.F4658.049620 Blue Eyes Intelligence Engineering
Journal Website: www.ijitee.org 1970 & Sciences Publication
 Computational Analysis and Optimization of Boxwing Aircraft for Reducing Induced Drag

VI. ABBREVATIONS
1)CL= Coefficient of Lift
2)CD= Coefficient of Drag
3)CDi= Coefficient of Induced Drag
4)CDo= Coefficient of Zero lift Drag

VII. CONCLUSION
Thus the project shows that the Boxwing is the most
effective way of reducing the induced drag developed due to
vortex formation. By this we would like to conclude that
Boxwing would be the future of commercial flight
applications. By the results we obtained that for multi
airfoil Boxwing the Coefficient of Induced drag is 0.014 and
Figure 17 :-Pressure countour of Boxwing model for a normal Conventional wing without Boxwing
configuration the Coefficient of Induced drag is 0.033 ,so
we observe there is reduce of 56.96% of the induced drag
with the utilisation of a Boxwing configuration. So our
overall we conclude that bu the utilisation of boxwing we
can reduce induced drag and fuel consumption. The Future
scope of this project would be changing the angle of attack
at the wing chord to improve the stability of the aircraft.
Also by changing the winglet curvature more amount of
induced drag may be reduced in the future.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
We express our sincere thanks to Dr. Hareesha N G,
Professor and HOD, Department of Aeronautical
Engineering, for providing the facilities required for the
Figure 18:- Vortex formation of Boxwing model completion of this project work. We also express our sincere
thanks to all members of the Derartment of Aeronautical
3) Calculations Engineering, Dayananda Sagar College of Engineering for
Lift, L=694889.9516N providing their valuable support for helping us complete this
Drag, D=146652.3556N project.
Maximum Shear Stress=88.95Pa
Maximum Dynamic Pressure=16977.0625 Pa REFERENCES
Wing area, S=661.25m 1. Sahana D S, Abdul Aabid,2015,CFD Analysis of Box Wing
Density=0.365 at 11,000meters altitude in air Configuration, Mangalore Institute of Technology and
CL=L/(0.5*Density*Velocity2*S) Engineering,Moodabidri
2. Hugnon Gagnon and David W. Zingg,Aerodynmic Optimization
=694889.9516/(0.5*0.365*2502*661.25) Trade Study of a Box Wing Aircraft Configuration, Institute for
CL=0.092 AerospaceStudies, University of Toronto, Toronto , Ontario,Canada
CD=D/(0.5*Density*Velocity2*S) 3. Julian Schirra, William bissonnette, and Gotz
Bramesfeld,2018,Wake-Model Effects on induced Drag SPrediction
=146652.3556/(0.5*0.365*2502*661.25) of Staggered Box wings, School of Engineering,RMIT
CD=0.019 University,Melbourne,Victoria 3000,Australia
CDo=Maximum shear stress/Maximum dynamic pressure 4. Khalid, A., & Kumar, P. (2014). Aerodynamic Optimization of Box
Wing – A Case Study. International Journal of Aviation, Aeronautics,
=88.95/16977.065 and Aerospace
=0.0052 5. Ishan Roy Salam, 2015, Multidisciplinary Analysis and Parametric
CD = CDo+ CDi Optimisation of Box-Wing Aircraft for Reduced Fuel Burn . BEng
CDi = CD – CDo (Hons)/BBus School of Aerospace Mechanical and Manufacturing
Engineering College of Science Engineering and Health, RMIT
= 0.019-0.0052 University
CDi = 0.0142 6. Timothy Chau and David W. Zingg ,2015, Aerodynamic Shape
Optimization Of Box Wing Regional Aircraft Basedon The Reynolds
–Averaged Navier Stokes Equations, Institute for Aerospace Studies,
V. OVEALL DISCUSSION: University of Toronto 4925 Dufferin St., Toronto, Ontario, M3H 5T6,
Canada
In the above theoretical results we see a great amount of 7. Andrews, Stephen Arthur Perez, Ruben E. (2016). Comparison of
decrease in the total drag when compared to the box-wing and conventional aircraft mission performance using
conventional type wing. The tip vortex region formed at the multidisciplinary analysis and optimization, Los Alamos National
Laboratory.
wings is compared to that of the conventional wing which
provides the main reason of decrease in the induced drag of
the aircraft.

Retrieval Number: F4658049620/2020©BEIESP Published By:

DOI: 10.35940/ijitee.F4658.049620 Blue Eyes Intelligence Engineering
Journal Website: www.ijitee.org 1971 & Sciences Publication
 International Journal of Innovative Technology and Exploring Engineering (IJITEE)
ISSN: 2278-3075 (Online), Volume-9 Issue-6, April 2020

8. Sriram K. Rallabhandi, Erol Cagatay ,Dimitri N. Mavris . (2001). An

Improved Procedure for Prediction of Drag Polars of a Joined Wing
Concept Using Physics-Based Response Surface Methodology.
School of Aerospace Engineering Georgia Institute of Technology
Atlanta, GA 30332-0150
9. D.Schikantz, D.Scholz ,2011, The Conflict of aerodynamic
Effeciency and Static Longitudinal Stability of Box Wing Aircraft,
Aircraft design and Systems group, Hamburg University of applied
Sciences, Hamburg, Germany.

AUTHOR PROFILE
V. Yamini Anoosha is an Assistant professor in
Aeronautical Engineering department in Dayananda
Sagar College of Engineering. She has hands on
teaching experience in multi colleges in Bangalore
under aeronautical stream and also worked as Design
Engineer in Sai Sri Venkat Turbo Engineering Services
Pvt Ltd. Hyderabad. Her current research interests is on increasing the
efficiency of High Lift Devices and design optimization of UAVs.

Kushal D Gowda is a final year student in Bachelor of

Engineering in Aeronautical Engineering from
Dayananda Sagar College of Engineering, Bangalore,
Karnataka. He has successfully completed his In-Plant
training at KaaShiv Infotech on Aeromodelling and
Design Analysis. Many of his Mini projects include
Turbine blade design and optimisation, UAV design and making of virtual
Rocket model. His research interests is in Aeromodelling, Avionics and
CFD analysis.

Saathvik Bhat is a final year student in Bachelor of

Engineering in Aeronautical Engineering from
Dayananda Sagar College of Engineering, Bangalore,
Karnataka. He has successfully completed his In-Plant
training at KaaShiv Infotech on Aeromodelling and
Design Analysis. Many of his Mini projects include
various wing configuration optimisation, Single stage Compressor design
and making of virtual Rocket model. His research interests is in
Aeromodelling, Aircraft Structures and Aerodynamics.

Manjunath Sagar is a final year student in Bachelor of

Engineering in Aeronautical Engineering from
Dayananda Sagar College of Engineering, Bangalore,
Karnataka. He has also completed is Diploma in
Aeronautical Engineering from HEA Polytechnique in
2014-2017. He has successfully completed his In-Plant
training at KaaShiv Infotech on Aeromodelling and
Design Analysis. His research interests is in Aeromodelling, Aircraft
Systems and Strength of Materials.

Vijay Jaya Vignesh is a final year student in Bachelor

of Engineering in Aeronautical Engineering from
Dayananda Sagar College of Engineering, Bangalore,
Karnataka. He has also completed is Diploma in
Aeronautical Engineering from HEA Polytechnique in
2014-2017. He has successfully completed his In-Plant
training at KaaShiv Infotech on Aeromodelling and Design Analysis. His
research interests is in Aeromodelling, Aircraft Propulsion and Aircraft
Maintenance Engineering.

Retrieval Number: F4658049620/2020©BEIESP Published By:

DOI: 10.35940/ijitee.F4658.049620 Blue Eyes Intelligence Engineering
Journal Website: www.ijitee.org 1972 & Sciences Publication