The Perfect Aircraft Design to Meet Business Demands

In the recent years, there has been much effort in the field of aeronautics to design aircraft that are best suited for their purpose. For example, small-sized aircraft that are well suited for civil and limited military missions. Research that was carried over the years on aerodynamics has been concentrating on chord Reynolds numbers that have been above 500000 since very few airplanes could operate on that number. There has been however an increase in interest recently on airfoils and wings that could operate blow 500000[ CITATION Chr09 \ 2057 ].

Few number of aircraft than the model aircraft have been successful in operating in this reduced range of Reynolds numbers there before.

The present interest developing low speed driven aircraft and in station keeping that is higher has led to a new interest in the flight era. Low Reynolds number (below 500000) has been usually considered to be an extreme slow flight. These flight usually have reduced wings with less chord length. Research shows that aircraft with less wing loading operating with lift coefficients that are high could end up with a low range of Reynolds number CITATION Tho09 \ 2057 ]. Most of the information that is used study aircraft wings at low Reynolds number was obtained from a model airplane. Scientist Schmitz was the pioneer to the model of for airplane wings. He was also the first person to report the currently recognized hysteresis that is realized on airfoils at low Reynolds numbers[ CITATION Sah05 \ 2057 ].

Hysteresis in this context is used to define the lagging of ferromagnetic materials in the airfoils behind the variation in the magnetic field.

Get quality help now

Prof. Finch

Verified

Proficient in: Demand

4.7 (346)

“ This writer never make an mistake for me always deliver long before due date. Am telling you man this writer is absolutely the best. ”

+84 relevant experts are online

Hire writer

The magnetic field strength forces all the magnetic atoms in the airfoils to align with the field thus increasing the total magnetic field referred to as the magnetic flux density. The alignment process lags behind the magnetic field. The magnetic flux rises with the rise in the magnetic field up to the saturation point. A decrease in the magnetic field leads to a decrease in the magnetic flux density. The process continues to form a hysteresis loop. Cores of the air foil transformers are made of narrow hysteresis loops so that less energy is lost.

Although the most recent design methods that have been developed produce relatively efficient airfoils for chord Reynolds that are greater than 500000,they are however inadequate for the chord Reynolds numbers which are less than 500000 more so when dealing with the extreme thin airfoils. While considering the airfoils boundary layer, the significant areas of interest are the disjointed regions that occur near the leading and the trailing edge and the transitioning of laminar to turbulent flow in case it occurs. The disjointing and transition are very sensitive to Reynolds number the disturbance environment and pressure gradient[ CITATION GAn11 \ 2057 ]. The disjointing and transition play a major role in the determination and development of the boundary layer that affects the general manner in which the airfoils operates.

The aerodynamics features of an aircraft wing and the other components affect the dynamic, static and aerostatic stability of an aircraft. This makes it necessary to successfully manage the sensitive boundary layer for specific low Reynolds number aeronautic vehicles[ CITATION Chr09 \ 2057 J. Wing aerodynamic with low Reynolds number are usually difficult and require specific advanced facilities. Wind tunnels that are used need to have very low turbulence levels since turbulent ones could easily spoil the boundary layer hence affect the real low Reynolds number behaviour. The measurement of forces present at a wing could be difficult since the forces involved may be quite low to the possibility of the presence of improperly installed surface pressure that could be tapping and thus trip the boundary layer.

Generally, in order to design a better aerial vehicle, there must be a well understanding of the small low-aspect-ratio wings. Research done in the recent years show that cambered plates give better aerodynamics’ features and performance. Research also shows that the trailing edge geometry of the wings and the intensity of turbulence in the wind tunnel does not have an effect on the drag and lift for thin wings at low Reynolds number.

References

1. Ananda, G. (2011). Aerospace Science and Technology. Measured aerodynamic characteristics of wings at low
2. Reynolds, 15. Girod, C. (2009). Aeronautics. San Diego: Lucent Books, Mueller, T. (2009). Aerodynamic Measurements at Low Reynolds Numbers for Fixed Wing Micro-Air Vehicles. 33.
3. Sedigh, S. (2005). The Science of Hysteresis . Burlington: Elsevier Science.