Recent Researches in Mechanics

Numerical Investigation on Performance and Environmental Impact of a compound wing in ground effect
S. Jamei, A. Maimun, S. Mansor, N. Azwadi, A. Priyanto

AbstractThe performance and environmental impact of a new compound wing were numerically investigated in proximity to the ground. The compound wing was divided into three parts where one rectangular wing in the middle and two reverse taper wings with anhedral angle on sides. Three dimensional (3D) computational fluid dynamics (CFD) was employed for numerical simulation. The k- turbulent model was applied for current flow over wing surface. The NACA6409 airfoil was used as a wing section. For validation propose, the drag coefficient and lift to drag ratio of a rectangular wing with respect to different aspect ratio, angle of attack, and ground clearance were compared to experimental data of other published work. The present numerical results show the drag coefficient of compound wings is smaller than drag coefficient of rectangular wing, also lift to drag ratio of compound wings has a considerable enhancement as compared to rectangular wing. In addition, the fuel consumption and CO2 emission related to use compound wings have sizeable decreasing compared to rectangular wing. Keywords: Aerodynamic characteristics, CFD method, Compound wing, CO2 emission; Fuel consumption, Wing-in-ground effect.

Pitching moment at c/4 from the leading edge

CO 2 Rate of CO2 emission m f Rate of fuel consumption m

S Sij SCE SE TSFC U Wf Wi p Reference area (= bc) Mean rate of deformation tensor Specific CO2 emission Specific energy Trust specific fuel consumption Free stream mean velocity Fuel weight Initial weight Angle of attack Propeller efficiency Air viscosity Air turbulent viscosity Turbulent energy dissipation rate Air density

Nomenclature
a AR b bm c ct c/ct CL CD CM CP D HS h h/c k L L/D Anhedral angle Aspect ratio (b/c) Total Wing Span Middle wing span Root chord length Tip chord lenght Taper ratio Lift Coefficient Drag Coefficient Moment coefficient Pressure coefficient Drag Force Height stability Height of trailing edge center above the ground Ground clearance Turbulent kinetic energy Lift force Lift to drag ratio

I.

INTRODUCTION

Wing-in-ground effect (WIG) craft will be talented craft for transportation as a new mean for travelling. The high speed and safety are qualities that could be considered for WIG craft. Passengers will prefer to faster means for short journey on river, lake, sea among islands and etc. The passenger boats have a restriction on speed because of their efficiency, fast boats with speed greater than 100 km/h can not reach to reasonable efficiency. The high speed boats, such as surface effect ships suffer hydrodynamic resistance, while WIG crafts contact with air where the drag is very low [1]. The aerodynamic interface between wings of WIG craft and ground surface ( such as water) named ground effect makes dynamic air cushion which this phenomenon not appear for airplane. The WIG crafts have been developed to fill the gap between ships and aircrafts and as a new option for transportation. The speed of WIG craft is higher than fast boat

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and its efficiency is greater than aircraft [2]. The low fuel consumption of WIG craft in cruise mode is a better economic option as compared to aircraft. This advantage makes the WIG craft has a larger range and endurance of flight. The efficiency of the various transportations is defined by L/D ratio versus speed. According to the Von Karman-Gabriel diagram, the gap between aircrafts and ships would be filled by the efficiency of WIG crafts [3]. Their speed range and L/D ratio are 100-400 km/h and 15-30 respectively [4]. The flow behavior around a wing is extensively improved by the ground effect. The stagnation point shifts to the lower side of wing and leads to larger part of air diverts over the wing. Therefore, the speed of air in lower side reduces and pressure rises, accordingly, and as result a dynamic air cushion is created. For very low ground clearance, largest pressure is generated on pressure side, named ram pressure, lift takes a noticeable enhancement. Concurrently, the downwash velocity reduces and causes a dropping in induced drag [5]. The effective aspect ratio of wing in proximity to the ground is greater than geometric one [6]. The efficiency of aircraft can be defined by a given payload over a certain distance. This efficiency is affected by the lift to drag ratio of the aircraft. Lift to drag ratio of wingin-ground (WIG) effect craft is greater than that of the aircraft. Therefore, WIG crafts give higher efficiencies. A criterion that can be considered for measuring efficiency is a specific payload that can be carried for a given distance. The Breguet range equation governed airborne craft, which represented for propeller driven as shown [7]:

operations, landing, and take-off take is around 10% of total emission, the rest of emission is related to cruise mode which is 90% [9]. The complete combustion of hydrocarbons produces CO2, and H2O. For incomplete combustion, CO is generated by engine. In high level of temperature and pressure nitrogen combines with the oxygen of air to produce NOx. The existing sulphur in fuel is combined with oxygen in air to generate sulphur oxide. Ozone affects of nitrogen oxides, therefore, this issue should be considered in controlling of environmental impact of aircrafts [10]. Jung et al. [11] performed extensive tests in the closedtype wind tunnel. The variables in tests were the aspect ratio (AR), angle of attack (), ground clearance (h/c) and endplate shape. They demonstrated the ground effect caused a decline in the tip vortex and the wake following the wing. They also confirmed by smoke trace test, the flow under the pressure side is kept by the endplate that causes a reduction on the tip vortex. The explanation shows that the induced drag diminishes due to the dropping of the tip vortex near the ground. The turbulent flow around two-dimensional wing was numerically investigated for fixed and moving ground by Chun and Chang [12]. An incompressible Reynolds Average Navier-Stokes (RANS) equation with finite difference method was applied for numerical model. According to their computational results, the type of ground model does not have more effect on the lift and moment coefficients, but the drag coefficient results with the fixed bottom is slightly smaller compared to the moving one. Aerodynamic characteristics of three-dimensional wings in ground effect for Aero-levitation Electric Vehicle (AEV) are numerically investigated for various ground clearances and wing spans by Moon et al. [13]. The design of AEV system is based on small wing span for decreasing costs of the structure and building of cruising channel. This system uses the tandem wing concept to satisfy the required lift. They showed the increasing of lift to drag ratio versus very low ground clearance (h/c<0.1) is nonlinear. Furthermore, the lift to drag ratio for small span of AEV wings enhances between 10-40%. Ockfen and Matveev [14] researched numerically on airflow around NACA4412 airfoil section with favorable flap pattern that get better aerodynamic behavior in extreme ground effect. The Spalart-Allmaras turbulence model of the navier-stokes equations was used for various Reynolds number and angle of attack during ground effect. They depicted with small flap deflection the lift to drag ratio has a considerable enhancement, although for high flap angle the pressure drag increasing consequently lift to drag ratio would be lesser than the wing without flap. Park and Lee [15] showed the influence of the endplate on aerodynamic characteristics of small aspect ratio wing. The

Range =

p
Cp

Wi L ln D Wi W f

(1)

This equation shows that lift to drag ratio have direct effect on growth of efficiency. The growth of air transportation makes a increasing in environmental impacts in the world. One way to reduce these issues can be controlling energy consuming. The pollutant emissions could be affected by the type of fuel, aircraft, engine, engine load and altitude [8]. The atmospheric emissions by aircraft are divided in two parts. First, local environmental impact belongs to take off and landing of aircraft and second is related to global effect where aircraft is in climbing, second, cruise mode which causes alteration in climate, stratospheric Ozone and etc. [8]. The percentage pollutant emissions are approximately 70% CO2, a lesser amount of 30% H2O, and NOx, CO, SOx, and hazardous air pollutants (HAPs) have less than 1% quantity. The emissions of aircraft during airport ground level

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endplate decreases tip vortex then makes considerable rising on lift and lift to drag ratio, also makes a small deviation of height stability respect to different ground clearance and angle of attack. Despite of the benefits, they found the endplate decreases stability. Park and Lee [2] demonstrated optimal profiles of two-dimensional wing to reach a moderate stability and high efficiency. They integrated computational fluid dynamics and multi-objective generic algorithm in their optimization. The objectives of their optimization were lift coefficient, lift to drag ratio and static height stability. Because of trade-off between static height stability and efficiency the optimal designs are not unique. They used NACA 0015 as baseline model and found asymmetric wing could not satisfy stability and performance of WIG craft. They obtained different optimal shapes of airfoil. According their optimization, there is linear relation between lift coefficient and lift to drag ratio, while, the height stability did not have this relation with lift coefficient and lift to drag ratio. The lower surface of all individual optimal profiles of airfoil was converted into flat surface. The flat form of the lower side makes a reduction in drag force and a rising in lift force; also the venture effect will be reduced in spite of asymmetric airfoil. The researchers try to improve the performance of wings to reach higher range and endurance of flight and lower fuel consumption and CO2 emission. The multi-element wing and endplates are some ways for developing the performance of wings. This paper presents the performance a new configuration of wing that is named compound wing by authors. The compound wing is assembled by three parts, a rectangular wing in the middle and two reverse taper wings with anhedral angle at outboard sides. The performance, fuel consumption, and CO2 emission of presented wings are compared with the rectangular wing. The numerical model used the three dimensional of CFD using finite volume scheme. The k- turbulent model has been employed for turbulent flow around wing.

computer (HPC) of Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM). The numerical method considered a steady state, incompressible turbulent flow by means of the k- turbulent model of the Navier-Stokes equations. The transport equations for the turbulent kinetic energy (k) and turbulent dissipation energy () are expressed as follow:

(k ) + div(kU) = div t grad(k ) + 2t Sij Sij t k

(2)

() 2 + div(U) = div t grad( ) + C1 2t Sij Sij C2 t k k

(3)

where t is the turbulent viscosity.

t = C

k2

(4)

The adaptable constants C, k, , C1 and C2 have the following values: C= 0.09 k = 1.00 = 1.3 C1= 1.44 C2 =1.92.

(a)

II.

CFD NUMERICAL STUDY

This numerical research was performed by a rectangular wing and two compound wings with NACA6409 airfoil section. The principle dimensions of wings (Figure 1) are shown in Table I. The compound wings have been completed with a rectangular wing in the middle and two reverse taper wings with anhedral angle at the sides. For validation purpose, the same rectangular wing and condition as in reference [11] was used. The rest of simulations were prepared with respect to different ground clearance, angle of attack, and aspect ratio. The free stream velocity of airflow was 30.8 m/s (60 knots). Ground level (h) is defined of the distance between trailing edge of wings center and ground surface. The CFD simulation was carried out by Fluent 6.3 software and high performance

(b)

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(c) Figure 2. The meshing of rectangular wing. Figure 1. (a) Rectangular wing, (b) Compound wing, (c) explanation of compound wing. Table I Principle dimension of wings.
Dimension Total wing span (b) Root chord length (c) Middle wing span (bm) Taper ratio (c/ ct) Anhedral angle (a) Rectangular wing 83.4 cm 66.7 cm -

Compound wing-1 83.4 cm 66.7 cm 41.4 cm

1.25 13

Compound wing-2 83.4 cm 66.7 cm 33.4 cm

1.25 13

Figure 3. The meshing of compound wing.

Wings and ground plane are defined as no-slip solid walls. A uniform velocity inlet without pressure gradient and a uniform pressure outlet without pressure gradient were employed at upstream and downstream, respectively. The momentum equations, turbulent kinetic energy and turbulent dissipation energy are discretized by second order upwind method. The Simple method is used for pressure-velocity coupling. The node-based scheme according the nodal values of grid face is applied to computing the gradient of values. Pressure based was applied for Navier-Stokes solution algorithm. The implicit method was applied for solving the equation. The number of mesh for each simulation is about 4,000,000-4,500,000. This number of elements has good enough convergence for refine meshing, the aerodynamic coefficients will have no more variation with higher + refinement mesh. The y values for turbulent flow from the wing surface are less than 50. The present simulation used symmetry plan as shown Figure 2 for rectangular wing and Figure 3 for compound wing. This is to shorten the simulation time although the results achieved will be the same.

III.

VALIDATION OF CFD SIMULATION

The present CFD simulations are validated by the experimental data of Jung et al. [11]. The accuracy of drag coefficient and lift to drag ratio was compared with their published experimental results. For validation purpose, the numerical results of rectangular wing with NACA 6409 airfoil section were proved. The present numerical drag coefficient and experimental data [11] are shown in Figs. 4-6 for rectangular wing. Figs. 45 show the magnitude of drag coefficients versus angle of attack for certain aspect ratio (AR= 1, 1.25) and ground clearance (h/c= 0.1, 0.15 m). Generally, trend of drag coefficient from present CFD simulations is similar with experiments. The argument of present drag coefficient of wing with increasing angle of attack in proximity to the ground is evidenced by wind-tunnel test. The numerical results exhibit small deviation from experimental data. Fig. 6 illustrates another comparison for drag coefficient versus ground clearance with aspect ratio of 1 and angle of attack of 2. There is good agreement between numerical and experimental

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results. Also, both simulations illustrate as ground clearance increases the drag coefficients trend up with small fluctuation.
0.1 0.09 0.08 0.07 0.06

0.05 0.04 0.03 0.02 0.01 0 0 2 4 6 8 10 Numerical Experimental

Angle of attack

Figure 4. Drag coefficient (CD) versus angle of attack for h/c = 0.1 and AR = 1.

two compound wings were compared as a shown in Figs. 710. The drag coefficients of wings versus angle of attack with aspect ratio 1.25 and ground clearance (h/c) of 0.1 are shown in Fig. 7. The reduction of drag coefficient of compound wings can observe especially for compound wing-2 at all angle of attack. The maximum reduction of drag coefficient occurs at angle of attack of 2 which is around 10.30% and 25% for compound wing-1 and compound wing-2, respectively. Fig. 8 illustrates another comparison of drag coefficient of wings for different ground clearance with angle of attack of 2. The percentage reductions are around 910.30% and 22-25% for compound wing-1 and compound wing-2, respectively. For both compound wings, the maximum reduction takes place at ground clearance of 0.1. The main reason for this reduction is smaller induce drag of compound wings because their wing tips are closer to the ground that makes weaker tip vortex. The tip wings of compound wing-2 is closer to the ground, hence its reduction drag is larger.
0.1 0.09 0.08 0.07 0.06

C D
CD

0.09 0.08 0.07 0.06 0.05

CD

0.04 0.03 0.02 0.01 0.00 0 2 4 6 8 10 Angle of attack Numerical Experimental

0.05 0.04 0.03 0.02 0.01 0 0 2 4 6 8 10

Rectangular wing Compound wing-1 Compound wing-2

Figure 5. Drag coefficient (CD) versus angle of attack for h/c = 0.15 and AR = 1.25.

Angle of attack

Figure 7. Drag coefficient (CD) versus angle of attack for h/c = 0.15 and AR = 1.25.

0.05 0.045 0.04 0.035 0.03

0.04 0.035 0.03 0.025

Numerical Experimental

CD

0.025

CD

0.02 0.015 0.01 0.005 0 0 0.05 0.1 0.15 0.2

0.02 0.015 0.01 Rectangular wing Compound wing-1 Compound wing-2

0.25

0.3

0.35

0.005 0 0 0.05 0.1 0.15 0.2 0.25 0.3 0.35

Ground clearance (h/c)

Figure 6. Drag coefficient (CD) versus ground clearance for angle of attack 2 and AR = 1.

Ground clearance (h/c)

Figure 8. Drag coefficient (CD) versus ground clearance for angle of attack 2 and AR = 1.25.

IV.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

The aerodynamic characteristics of a rectangular wing and

The lift to drag ratio of wings versus angle of attack and ground clearance are shown in Fig. 9 and Fig.10, respectively. The compound wings have a greater lift to drag ratio

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compared to rectangular wing. These increments of lift to drag ratio are considerable as a performance of compound wings. The tip wings of compound wings are closer to the ground especially for low ground clearance, in that case, lower downwash velocity makes higher lift and lower induce drag particularly in compound wing-2 that cause a so high lift to drag ratio. The maximum increment of lift to drag ratio is around 34% and 80% in ground clearance of 0.1 and angle of attack of 2.
20 18 16 14 12 L/D 10 8 6 4 2 0 0 2 4 6 8 10 Rectangular wing Compound wing-1 Compound wing-2

Also, the rate of CO2 emission according to fuel consumption was calculated by Eq. 7.

CO 2 = m f SE SCE m

(7)

Where the magnitude of SE (specipic energy) and SCE (specipic CO2 emision) is 43 MJ/kgfuel and 0.26 kgCO2/kWh for Kerosene , respectively. The rate of fuel consumption and CO2 emission related to wings for certain speed in cruise mode respect to different angle of attack and ground clearance were sumerized in Tables II,III. In addition, the reduction of fuel consumption and CO2 emission from compound wings related to rectangular wing was determined by Eq. 8, both tables shows noticible reductions. These reductions for small angle of attack is heigher which is around 14% and 29% for compound wing-1 and compound wing-2 as shown in Table II. Table III shows considerable reduction of fuel consumption and CO2 emission related to compound wings in different ground clearance with small angle of attack. This reduction for compound wing-2 is around twic compound wing-1.

Angle of attack

Figure 9. Lift to drag ratio (L/D) versus angle of attack for h/c = 0.1 and AR = 1.25.

Re duction(%) = 1

f (m CO 2 ) (Compound ) m f (m CO 2 ) (Re c tan gular ) m

(8)

20 18 16 14 12 L/D 10 8 6 4 2 0 0 0.05 0.1 0.15 0.2 0.25 0.3 0.35 Rectangular wing Compound wing-1 Compound wing-2

Ground clearance (h/c)

Figure 10. Lift to drag ratio (L/D) versus ground clearance for angle of attack 2 and AR=1.25.

In the cruise mode of flight without accelerate roughly can suppose the drag force is equal the trust. The rate fuel consumptions of only wings based on drag force and trust specific fuel consumption (TSFC) were calculated by Eq. 5.

f = TSFC D m

(5)

Where TSFC is 0.5 (kg/h)/N and drag force was obtained as follow: D=0.5USCD (6)

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Table II Rate of fuel consumption and CO2 emission of wings versus angle of attack for h/c = 0.1 and AR = 1.25.
Rectangular wing Fuel CO2 consumption emission (kg/h) (kg/h) 4.21 13.08 5.35 16.63 7.39 22.95 10.26 31.87 13.86 43.05 Compound wing-1 Fuel CO2 Reduction consumption emission (%) (kg/h) (kg/h) 3.60 11.19 14.42 4.56 14.17 14.78 6.67 20.72 9.74 9.62 29.87 6.29 13.26 41.18 4.34 Compound wing-1 Fuel CO2 Reduction consumption emission (%) (kg/h) (kg/h) 3.00 9.31 28.84 3.79 11.77 29.22 5.72 17.76 22.62 8.45 26.23 17.68 11.79 36.61 14.96

Angle of attack 0 2 4 6 8

Table III Rate of fuel consumption and CO2 emission of wings versus ground clearance for angle of attack of 2 and AR = 1.25
Rectangular wing Fuel CO2 consumption emission (kg/h) (kg/h) 5.35 16.63 5.59 17.37 5.70 17.69 5.74 17.82 5.78 17.95 Compound wing-1 Fuel CO2 Reduction consumption emission (%) (kg/h) (kg/h) 4.56 14.17 14.78 4.82 14.96 13.90 4.92 15.29 13.60 4.93 15.31 14.08 5.00 15.52 13.57 Compound wing-1 Fuel CO2 Reduction consumption emission (%) (kg/h) (kg/h) 11.77 3.79 29.22 12.46 4.01 28.30 12.71 4.09 28.16 12.91 4.16 27.57 13.06 4.21 27.25

Ground clearance (h/c) 0.1 0.15 0.2 0.25 0.3

V.

CONCLUSION

The current work investigated on performance, fuel consumption and environmental impact of an especial ram wing concept which is named compound wing by authors. The compound wings have been divided into three parts, middle part is rectangular wing and side parts that are reverse taper wing with anhedral angle. Two compound wings with same span but different configuration were compared with a rectangular wing. The main difference between two compounds wings is the span size of middle part and side parts. The distance between wing tips of compound wings and ground causes a reduction on induce drag because of weaker tip vortex, hence, the drag coefficient of compound wing is considerable less than rectangular wing in proximity to the ground for different angle of attack. Also, the compound wings have a higher lift to drag ratio compared to rectangular wing due to smaller downwash velocity and then improving pressure distribution on the pressure surface. The high lift to drag ratio of

compound wings in extreme ground effect recognizes a good efficiency and high payload for WIG crafts. The lower drag of compound wings makes a noticeable reduction on fuel consumption that can be an economic point. Consequently, the CO2 emission related to compound wing is so smaller than this emission related to rectangular wing. This reduction of CO2 emission is another advantage of compound wing associated with green society.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The authors would like to thank the Ministry of Science, Technology, and Innovation (MOSTI) Malaysia for funding this research under vote number 79344.

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