Using the Winglet Toe and Twist Angle to Improve

Wing Aerodynamics Performance

Ali Jabbar Al-Khafaji (  [email protected] )
Southern Federal University: Uznyj federal'nyj universitet https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8595-270X
Gennady S. Panatov
SFedU Engineering and Technological Academy: Uznyj federal'nyj universitet Inzenerno-tehnologiceskaa
akademia
Anton S. Boldyrev
SFedU Engineering and Technological Academy: Uznyj federal'nyj universitet Inzenerno-tehnologiceskaa
akademia

Research

Keywords: lift, drag, lift and drag coefficient, aircraft wing, winglet, angle of attack, Toe and Twist angle,
SOLIDWORKS, CFD, ANSYS FLUENT

DOI: https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-664368/v1

License:   This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
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Abstract
In this paper, we study the effect of winglet Toe & Twist angle on the wing of the aircraft aerodynamics
performances and how to improve it, we analyze the aerodynamics properties of the wing with winglets
with Cant angle 60o and winglet span = 3.5 m, we test wings with different toe angles (+10o, +5o, 0o, -5o,
and -10o) and twisted angles (+5o, 0o, and +5o) and all model are tested for four Angle of attack AOA (0o,
3o, 6o, and 9o). Then calculate the value of L/D to decide which wing has a high value of lift and lower
drag. All models of a wing (sixty models) are drawn for 3D using the SOLIDWORKS program where we
used Boeing 737-800 wing dimensions. Then all models of a wing were analyzed using ANSYS FLUENT.

1. Introduction
The pressure differential at the top and bottom of wing produces lift, By the lift presence, the vortices
produced at the wing tips are inevitable items, so it implies the difficulties induced by force supporting the
aircraft in the air. The presence of Induced Drag is caused by these vortices. The size of this vortex is
known to be very risky for air traffic in the case of civil aviation, and its dissipation is calculated to be two
minutes on average. This period of time is called an interval of two landings or two takeoffs. This vortex
is also seen as a critical element in airport architecture.[1] [2] and we know the aerospace industry
depends on the continual advancement of current technology and the innovative production of new
designs to increase the return on investment in the construction of aircraft.[3] Aircraft designer as a way
of minimizing the induced wing drag, winglets have been used on aircraft.[4]

Winglets are small wing extensions that are pointed upward or backward at the tip of the wing. Like the
wingtip feathers of birds in flight, they can also bend effortlessly.[5] During winglet design, a variety of
winglet design parameters such as span, sweep, cant, toe, twist and aspect ratio should be taken into
account.[6] In this project we will study the effect of two parameter, Toe and Twist angle.

The Toe angle changes the winglet's direction at the point of attachment to the wing. This change in
angle causes a change in the winglet incidence angle, resulting in a change in the distribution of the lift
that can increase the lift, but at the same time drag variations. The key use of the angle of the toe is as a
load reducing mechanism that will overcome the rising loads due to the winglet installation (This is
mainly valid for retrofitted winglets). The winglet's Twist angle is used to mitigate the negative effects of
the toe angle modification. With the twist angle adjustment, the L/D values that are influenced by the
differences of the toe angle can be raised without influencing the Wing loads in a significant way. [7]

2. Wing Models Description

SOLIDWORKS software program is using in this project, to build sixty 3D models and then analyzing
using ANSYS (Fluent) software program, we using different Toe angles (+ 10o, +5o, 0o, -5o, and − 10o) and
Twist angles (+ 5o, 0o, and − 5o) to build models, with fixed Cant angle 60o, winglet span 3.5 m, and

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winglet tip 375 mm, see Figures (1)(2)(3)(4)). All model builds with four Angle of attack AOA (0o, 3o, 6o,
and 9o) with wing dimensions as follow see Figure (5): -

1. Mean Aerodynamic Chord (basic wing only) 13 feet and 0 inch (3.96 M)
2. Planform Taper Ratio • Tip Chord (Root Chord) − 0.219
3. Root Chord (theoretical, at Body Centerline) − 18 feet and 9 inches (5.71 M)
4. Sweepback (at the 25 percent chord line) − 25.03 degrees
5. Tip Chord (theoretical) − 4 feet and 1.25 inches (1.25 M)

We assume that the model: - Space 3D Time Steady Viscous SST k-omega. Velocity Magnitude (m/s)
230 wing Condition. Reference value: - Boeing 737–800, typical cruising altitude 35,000 ft. with cruising
speed 0.78 Mach. [8], temperature − 51 (Co) [9], density: 1.5915 (kg/m^3), dynamic viscosity: 1.4584E-5
(kg/m.s) [10], pressure: 3.46 (pascal).[11]

3. Results
CFD simulations (ANSYS FLUENT) have been done for the sixty wing models with different winglet and
then comparing the aerodynamics characteristics of lift coefficient CL, drag coefficient CD, and lift-to-drag
ratio (L/D). We calculate the value of lift and drag force, see Figure (6,7) for all wing models, and specify
the max. and min value of lift and drag see Table (1,2), we can see both values of lift & drag values
increasing with the increasing the values of angle of attack it gives us an indication for the behavior of
the lift and drag force of all wing model but not obvious, we calculate L/D see Figure (8) for all model and
we specify the maximum value L/D at AOA, see Table (3), In Figure (9) we can see the wing ANSYS
FLUENT analysis for two models they represent the maximum and minimum L/D value and see the
vortex generation on every wing, so for our model dimension, the reference value, and our select winglet
type we get this value, which can differ when we change any element.

4. Conclusion
Winglets in general invented to enhance the aerodynamic properties by decrease the induced drag
generation in the tip of the wing and there are different ways for optimization.

In this paper, we change the winglet Toe and Twist angle in a way that increases the lift force with
decreases the drag force. it's important to find the optimal combinations between these two angles taken
into consideration the dimensions and assumptions of our wing.

In our model, we assume Toe angles (+ 10o, +5o, 0o, -5o, and − 10o) and twisted angles (+ 5o, 0o, and + 5o)
versus four angles of attack (0o, 3o, 6o, and 9o) after calculation we get that, the best result from the
sixty models is when the Toe angle is -5 and Twist angle is + 5 at an angle of attack 3 according to our
wing data.

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The results can be improved by testing the wing with more specified values depending on our result such
as Toe angle (-6o, -5o, and − 4o), Twist angle (+ 6o, +5o, and + 4o) versus angle of attack (+ 2o, +3o, and +
4o).

Declarations
Availability of data and materials
Wing dimension data is taken from the real airplane wing of Boeing 737-800. Analysis of the wing done
in the condition of cruise flight phase due to the airplane flies at a more or less constant altitude and this
is generally the longest phase of the flight.

COMPETING INTERESTS

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that
could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

FUNDING

Southern Federal University / The Institute of Radio Engineering Systems and Control.

AUTHOR’S CONTRIBUTION
Conceptualization, Gennady S. Panatov, Anton S. Boldyrev; Ali J. Dawood Al-Khafaji; Methodology,
Gennady S. Panatov, Anton S. Boldyrev. Investigation and Writing – Original Draft, Ali J. Dawood Al-
Khafaji; Writing – Review and Editing, Gennady S. Panatov, Anton S. Boldyrev; Resources, Ali J. Dawood
Al-Khafaji; Supervision, Gennady S. Panatov, Anton S. Boldyrev.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Authors are thankful to Advances in Aerodynamics (AIA) for support for publishing this article, and also
to all the reviewers for providing very constructive feedback to this paper.

References
1 Belferhat, S., Meftah, S., Yahiaoui, T., and Imine, B.: ‘Aerodynamic Optimization of a Winglet Design’, in
Editor (Ed.)^(Eds.): ‘Book Aerodynamic Optimization of a Winglet Design’ (EDP Sciences, 2013, edn.), pp.

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01010

2 Srikanth, G., and Surendra, B.: ‘Experimental investigation on the effect of multi-winglets’, International
Journal of Mechanical & Industrial Engineering, 2011, 1, (1), pp. 43-46

3 Lappas, I., and Ikenaga, A.: ‘Conceptual design and performance optimization of a tip device for a
regional turboprop aircraft’, Aerospace, 2019, 6, (10), pp. 107

4 Pfeiffer, N.: ‘Numerical winglet optimization’, in Editor (Ed.)^(Eds.): ‘Book Numerical winglet
optimization’ (2004, edn.), pp. 213

5 Guerrero, J., Sanguineti, M., and Wittkowski, K.: ‘CFD study of the impact of variable cant angle winglets
on total drag reduction’, Aerospace, 2018, 5, (4), pp. 126

6 Paudel, P.: ‘Aerodynamic aspects in the development of morphing winglet for a regional aircraft’, Dept.
App. Sci. Aerospace. Eng. Ryerson University, 2013

7 Cancino Queirolo, M.A.: ‘Impact of Morphing Winglets on Aircraft Performance’, 2018

8 https://www.rocketroute.com/aircraft/boeing-737-800

9 https://www.livescience.com/

10 http://www.mhtl.uwaterloo.ca/properties.html

11 https://www.engineeringtoolbox.com/air-altitude-pressure-d_462.html

Tables
Table (1) Lift force value

Function Value Description

Max. lift 1150965.9 Toe Angle +5o

Twist Angle +5o

Angle of attack 9o

Min. lift 99360.469 Toe Angle -10o

Twist Angle -5o

Angle of attack 0o
Table (2) Drag force value

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 Function Value Description

Max. drag 189117.98 Toe Angle +10o

Twist Angle 0o

Angle of attack 0o

Min. drag 12843.399 Toe Angle 0o

Twist Angle -5o

Angle of attack 0o
Table (3) Lift to drag ratio value

Function Value Description

Max. L/D 18.67 Toe Angle -5o

Twist Angle +5o

Angle of attack 3o

Min. L/D 5.23 Toe Angle -10o

Twist Angle 0o

Angle of attack 0o

Figures

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Figure 1

Winglet Toe and Twist Angle

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Figure 2

Wing shape with a different view orientation

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Figure 3

Winglet Dimension

Figure 4

Wing shape with a different Winglet Toe & Twist angle

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Figure 5

Wing dimensions

Figure 6

Lift force of a wing with different winglet Toe angle T (+10o, +5o, 0o, -5o, and -10o) and Twist angle W
(+5o, 0o, and +5o) versus different angle of attack (0o, 3o, 6o, and 9o)

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Figure 7

Lift force of a wing with different winglet Toe angle T (+10o, +5o, 0o, -5o, and -10o) and Twist angle W
(+5o, 0o, and +5o) versus different angle of attack (0o, 3o, 6o, and 9o)

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Figure 8

Lift to drag force L/D of a wing with different winglet Toe angle T (+10o, +5o, 0o, -5o, and -10o) and Twist
angle W (+5o, 0o, and +5o) versus different angle of attack (0o, 3o, 6o, and 9o)

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Figure 9

Wing ANSYS FLUENT analysis for model (A) winglet with Toe angle -5o, Twist angle +5o, and angle of
attack +3o, (B) winglet with Toe angle -10o, Twist angle 0o, and angle of attack 0o

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