Numerical Study of the Effect of Adding Wingtip Fence

Winglet on Aerodynamic Performance of Airfoil NACA

4415
Hermanto S. Butarbutar 1,3 (b), Himsar Ambarita1(a), Tulus B. Sitorus2 (c), and Farel
H. Napitupulu 1,(e)

Author Affiliations
1 Sustainable Energy Research Center, Universitas Sumatera Utara, Medan, Indonesia.
2 Mechanical Engineering, Universitas Sumatera Utara, Medan, Indonesia.

3 Politeknik Penerbangan Medan, Medan, Indonesia.

Author Emails
a) Corresponding author: himsar@usu.ac.id
b) hermanto.uhn@gmail.com
c) farelnapitupulufn@gmail.com

Abstract. This journal discusses specifically about aircraft winglets. Numerical modelling of winglets on airplane wings
using CFD is the author's main activity. The author's focus is to find out the effect of adding winglets of the wingtip fence
type to the wingtips of the TBM 700 A aircraft that have not used winglets on the aerodynamic characteristics of the
aircraft. The use of the winglet itself is to reduce the drag force in the form of vortex drag that occurs at the wingtip of the
aircraft due to air movement from the lower area of the aircraft to the upper wing area. Simulation will be carried out
using ANSYS by entering the condition of the aircraft when cruising at a speed of 128.66 m/s. Winglets without and with
winglets were simulated under the same conditions using the NACA 4415 airfoil. The simulation results showed that the
addition of winglets reduced the drag coefficient by 21.7%. In addition, the CL/CD ratio has increased by 6% which
indicates the aircraft's ability to fly. Overall, the results of this study show that the performance of the aircraft increases
with the addition of wingtip fence type winglets in the aerodynamic profile of the aircraft, which will affect the aircraft's
ability and even reduce fuel consumption.

INTRODUCTION
The Wright Brothers first created the manned aircraft in December 1904. Since then, humans have massively
improved the concept of aviation, with the existence of transcontinental travel with ease today [1]. With a wing
concept can produce a lifting force obtained from the pressure difference between the larger bottom while the
lower part is smaller [2]. This technology has expanded the reach of humans and encouraged the advancement
of civilization with a rapid process of globalization. There are 4 resultant forces involved When an aircraft is an
aircraft, namely Heavy force, which is the weight of the aircraft due to the force of gravity. acting in a
downward direction—towards the centre of the Earth [3]. The lifting force is the force that makes the aircraft lift
which is created due to the difference in air pressure. Thrust is the force that pushes the glyph in the direction of
motion. The engine produces thrust. Finally, the drag force is a force that acts opposite to the direction of
motion. This force is usually caused by friction and the difference in air pressure [4]. The lifting force and thrust
are expected to be greater than all these forces to keep the aircraft able to fly taking advantage of air pressure.
The inhibitory force on the aircraft can be a hindrance in achieving the efficiency of the aircraft itself. This can
result in the need for greater thrust or lift force. This is definitely closely related to the large fuel needs of
aircraft. Aviation produces 2% of anthropogenic CO2 emissions, mainly due to engine fuel consumption [5].
Aircraft fuel consumption has a direct impact on the sustainability of the aviation market and the environmental
and economic aspects of the market are influenced by the efficiency of the aircraft. Good and efficient flight can
optimize the use of aviation turbine fuel properly and in the corridor of maintaining flight safety [6]. According
to A Majka, the use of fuel is currently one that must be considered, because aircraft carrying excessive fuel will
increase costs and reduce the carrying capacity of the aircraft.
There are many factors influencing the magnitude of the aerodynamic drag force which includes the shape,
size, slope of the aircraft with the flow and the conditions of the flow passing through the aircraft [7]. Several
studies have been conducted to analysis several parameters that can affect the inhibitory force of the aircraft. In
his paper, Nurul Anwar et al explained that the inhibition style is divided into 2, namely Zero-lift drag and
Induced drag. Zero-lift drag occurs due to leather friction between the air and the fuselage while induced drag
occurs due to the lifting force on the wings of the aircraft. Induced drag consists of vortex drag and wave drag
[8]. Vortex drag is the author's focus on this study. In aviation, lower pressure is to be found on the upper
surface and higher pressure in the lower part of the wing surface of the aircraft [9]. Because the airflow with
greater pressure will flow at the bottom of the wing towards the wing tip and replace the small pressure at the
top, the phenomenon produces a vortex that can affect aerodynamic performance referred to as induced drag
[10]. The vortex or vortex of air flow has considerable rotational and translational kinetic energy. This reduces
the effectiveness of the angle of attack so that the resulting lifting force will also decrease by 6]. The two
airflows will meet at the end of the airfoil (trailing edge wing) will produce a vortex that will become an
obstacle to the motion of the aircraft. This phenomenon is often referred to as wingtip vortices.
In the course of overcoming the vortex drag, a technology is used that can reduce the possibility of adverse
vortices occurring at the end of the aircraft [11]. This technology is a winglet, which is a form of extension of
the wing tip that is designed in such a way as to avoid obstacles due to vortexes. The technology was first
introduced by Frederick W. Lanchester, an English aerodynamicist patented how to control the wing tip vortex
by adding a vertical plate at the end [12]. And further research continues to be carried out to perfect this aviation
technology.
Pedro Paulo Santos Rodrigues da Cunha finds out the obstacles caused by the winghead vortex on the blended
winglet using CFD. [13] This would prove that there was an influence on the use of blended winglets on aircraft
in reducing drag forces. From the results of his research, it was concluded that the use of winglets will reduce
the inhibitory force, the inhibition coefficient and increase the lift force. He strongly suggested winglets as a
way to improve aircraft flight. Nurul Anwar, Lazuardy Rahendra P, Bangga Dirgantara A modeled numerically
with CFD-based software to predict aerodynamic characteristics and airflow phenomena around the wings with
wing tip devices and without wing tip devices. This study aims to determine the air flow conditions, induced
drag value, and the selection of the wing tip device design on the wing profile of the LSU-05 UAV. The model
used in this study was a half-wing LSU-05 with NACA 4415 made with CATIA V5R20 software and its
simulation using ANSYS CFX 17.1. [8] Based on this research and discussion using a numerical method based
on fluid dynamic computing, namely the ANSYS CFX software, it can be concluded that what is expected
according to the objectives of this study is that the canted winglet has an effect on reducing induced drag and
improving aerodynamic performance on the wing profile of the LSU-05 UAV. Since this research is to prove
the function of the canted winglet in reducing induced drag and improving aerodynamic performance, further
simulation development can be carried out by varying the angle of attack, angle of attack, and other geometric
shapes of wingtip devices.
V. Madhanraj et al, analyzed models of various types of winglets and wingtip devices using SOLIDWORKS
software and Fluent Analysis using ANSYS software. To determine aerodynamic efficiency, two types of
winglets were simulated, namely blended winglets and raked winglets. The design uses SOLIDWORKS and
simulates using ANSYS software. The best performing airfoil in terms of aerodynamic efficiency, the NACA
64-215, was selected for the wing construction. Based on the results obtained, it is concluded that the blended
winglet at a cant angle of 60° produces a higher lift and CL/CD ratio, when compared to the raked winglet. [11]
Comparison of different types of raked winglets with different racks and wings with blended cant angle of 30°
results in less lift and less CL/CD ratio when compared to the wing configuration above. As a result, a blended
winglet with a Cant angle of 60° is the most suitable winglet, as it produces the highest CL/CD ratio and lift
coefficient while lowering the drag coefficient. Rohit Jain, Mr. Sandeep Jain, Mr. Lokesh Bajpai studied the
effect of winglets on the NACA 2415 aerofoil using CFD. This is done by comparing aerodynamic
characteristics which include drag coefficient (C D), lift coefficient (CL), and lift to drag ratio (CL/CD) with and
without the winglet model. The geometry of the wing and meshing model was performed using ANSYS 15
software. [10] The computational simulation was performed by ANSYS FLUENT with a low Mach number of
0.23 at various angles of attack. The results obtained after performing simulations on each configuration show
that the Winglet with Winglet Modified Profile (root) & Dihedral angle has the highest Lift coefficient and Lift-
to-Drag ratio (CL/CD) values compared to other wings. This proves that a Wing with Winglet Modified Profile
(root) & Dihedral angle will serve the purpose of a wing. Therefore, if a Wing with Winglet Modified Profile
(root) & Dihedral angle will be installed on the wing of the aircraft, it will have good aerodynamic
characteristics which will result in shorter time and less fuel consumption.
There are many types of winglets that have been developed, changes and modifications continue to be made to
make the efficiency of this technology continue to increase [14]. The winglet type that is quite unique is the
wingtip fence type, which is the type of winglet that extends the tip of the wing to the top and bottom where the
previous general forms of winglets face upwards. S.P. Setyo Hariyadi, Sutardi, Wawan Aries Widodo, and
Bambang Juni Pitoyo compared the positions of the wingtip fence type winglets if the ends are attached to the
front of the wing or not. This term is known as rearward and forward wingtip fence to determine performance
and reduce drag. This study uses the ANSYS simulation method with the same parameters for each model to be
compared. With the E562 airfoil profile comparison of the vorticity magnitude was carried out. It was found that
the vorticity magnitude of the forward wingtip produced a vortex of lower strength than the rearward wingtip
fence [15]. This means that the resulting vortex has only a small effect on the plane's motion. This type of
wingtip fence was also compared by S.P. Setyo Hariyadi with the type of blended winglet using CFD
simulation. [16] It was found that the wingtip fence produces smaller eddies both in terms of area and
concentration of eddies compared to blended winglets. This type of winglet wingtip fence attracts the author's
attention in analyzing further influences on the aerodynamics of the aircraft.
The TBM 700 A aircraft is a small-scale passenger aircraft and can also be used as a training aircraft. This
aircraft still uses ordinary wings and does not yet have winglets. From several literature reviews regarding
winglets, the authors want to investigate the effect of adding wingtip fence type winglets to the TBM 700 A
aircraft. It is hoped that there will be an increase in the performance of the aircraft wing in increasing efficiency,
lift force, and reducing drag on the aircraft. The comparison of the values of the lift force, drag force, CL/CD
ratio of the wing turbulence of the TBM 700 A aircraft using and not using winglets will be displayed. It is
hoped that the addition of this wingtip fence type can contribute well to the TBM 700 A aircraft.

METHODS

The method used in analyzing the effect of adding winglets is using ANSYS simulation which is one of the
software to analyze a system with numerical methods. In the world of aviation, numerical simulation has saved
and accelerated research in this field of aviation, which used to still use simple equipment such as wind tunnels.
By using this ANSYS, analysis of the conditions that occur around the wings of the aircraft can be done.
Simulations were carried out in 2 conditions, first the condition without winglets and the condition with the
addition of winglets. A comparison of the lift coefficient and drag coefficient will be carried out to find the
effect of adding winglets to the aircraft wing.
The type of winglet used is the wingtip fence where this type produces a smaller drag vortex than the other
types. The characteristics of the aircraft wings to be added with winglets are shown in the following table.
TABLE 1. Specifications of Wing
Airfoil type NACA 4115
Wing type Low wing airplane

Sweep angle (25% ratio) 0⁰

Aspect ratio 5,27
Wing span 5500 mm
As for the specifications of the winglets that you want to add will be shown in the table below.
TABLE 2. Specifications of Winglet

Winglet type Wingtip fence

Winglet span 1500 mm
Winglet angle 0⁰
Taper ratio 0,79

The first step in conducting this simulation is to design a 3D model of the TBM 700 A airplane winglet using
SOLIDWORKS software which will then be imported into ANSYS for simulation. It can be seen in the Figure 1
below the results of modeling the wings of the aircraft with and without the addition of winglets.

FIGURE 1. Wings model (a) Without Winglet, (b) With Winglet

 In the simulation there are 2 domains involved, namely the aircraft wing domain and the air domain. This is in
accordance with the actual situation where the wings of the aircraft will rub against the air to get the lift force.
To make these 2 domains integrated, the shape or geometry of the aircraft wing is made into a negative shape
(enclosure) in the air domain. So when the air domain moves, the negative shape of the wing will be analyzed as
the effect of air movement.
When the geometry has been prepared, then proceed with the meshing process. Divide the domain into small
partitions for easy analysis with controllable size and shape. The type of meshing used is a tetrahedron with an
element size of 12 cm. The quality of the meshing has met the safe limit with a skewness value of 0.7. In the
area near the aircraft wing the mesh size is improved because it causes non-uniformity compared to other areas.
The meshing display will be shown in Figure 2 below.

FIGURE 2. Meshing Display

In determining the boundary condition we need to set and select the part of the geometry to be treated.
Boundary conditions include, among others, the inlet, outlet, and wing of the aircraft. The simulation is run
transiently by taking the condition of the plane again taking off. For the viscosity setup, k-omega SST is used
which is commonly used to analyze the effects of turbulent flow conditions. At the boundary conditions,
adjustments are made to the speed of the air flow. The display of the bias boundary conditions can be seen in the
image below.

FIGURE 3. Boundary condition

In Figure 3 above, the blue arrow indicates the direction of the air inlet or inlet, while the red arrow indicates
the outlet. Because the simulation is transient, we need to create a function that determines the plane's position
(altitude) based on time. This function is called a user-defined function (UDF). Operational aircraft TBM 700 A
take off at a blade 12.5 with an average speed of 128.66 m/s. This means that the aircraft will increase its
position (altitude) by about 500 feet in 1 minute. Air temperature is the variable in this function, which will
decrease with increasing aircraft altitude. And then this will affect the characteristics of the air that hit the plane.
In the outlet condition, a pressure outlet is used with a pressure profile multiplier of 1.
It is necessary to set the calculation method and initialize the initial conditions before the simulation runs. We
use Hybrid Initialization where this will give freedom to the program to predict and determine the initial
conditions of the appropriate parameters. After that, the calculation process is carried out with a time step of 0.5
and a number of time steps of 30 that it means the simulation runs within 15 seconds. This indicates that in 1
minute there are 2 iterations. Then the calculation is executed until convergence occurs for each parameter
value.

RESULT AND DISUCUSSION

Simulations on the effect of adding winglets on the wings of the TBM 700 A aircraft have produced quite good
data. The simulation is run transiently for 60 s. As mentioned, the author's goal is to compare several parameters
that show an increase in performance on the aircraft wing when adding wingtip fence type winglets.
TABLE 3. Comparison of NACA 4415 simulation with previous studies.
Parameter Without Winglet With Winglet
CL 2.244 1.861
CD 0.101 0.079
CL/CD 22,21 23,55

(a)

(b)
FIGURE 4. CL Coefficient (a) Without Winglet, (b) With Winglet
The Figure 4 shows that there are differences in the C L values of aircraft that use and do not use winglets. In
the simulation results, there is a decrease in the average C L where the wings using winglets have a C L of 2.244
while those using winglets are 1.861. This could have happened because the author did a simulation on a single
AOA which is 0°. However, the drag force experienced by the aircraft experienced a significant decrease, with
the addition of the CD winglet the aircraft wing decreased by 21.7%. The average C D when using winglets is
 0.101 and by using winglets is 0.079. This decrease in the value of C D shows the effect of the addition of
winglets on the wings of the aircraft.

(a)

(b)
FIGURE 5. CD Coefficient (a) Without Winglet, (b) With Winglet
In addition, the CL/CD comparison is carried out to determine the ratio of lift and drag that occurs on the
aircraft. This ratio shows how much inclined the plane is to fly. Based on the simulation, the C L/CD ratio without
winglets is 22.21, while using winglets the C L/CD ratio is 23.55. There was an increase of 6% with the addition
of wingtip fence type winglets on the wings of this TBM 700 A aircraft.

CONCLUSION

Analysis of the effect of adding winglets on the wing performance of the TBM 700 A aircraft numerically has
been carried out. In this study, a comparison of the aerodynamic coefficients, including C L, CD, CL/CD, and the
resulting turbulence in conditions without winglets and using winglets has been carried out. The simulation
results show an increase in wing performance where there is a significant decrease in drag force of 21.7%. This
proves that one type of drag force, namely vortex drag, can be minimized by adding winglets at the end of the
plane. The CL/CD ratio which shows the tendency of aircraft to also increase with the addition of winglets. An
increase of 6% occurred in the CL/CD ratio. And finally, the addition of wingtip fence type winglets on the wings
of the TBM 700 A aircraft can improve the aerodynamic performance of the aircraft.

AKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The researcher would like to thank Erasmus United for the support of the tools and equipment used to this
research in mechanical engineering, university of Sumatera Utara, Under grant 2021-3912/001-001.

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