Aircraft Drag On A Plane

Running head: AIRCRAFT DRAG ON A PLANE 1

Aircraft Drag on a Plane

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AIRCRAFT DRAG ON A PLANE 2

Aircraft Drag on A Plane

Abstract

Drag reduction for Airplane has huge positive advantages and effects. They include

reduced fuel consumption, increased ability to achieve higher speeds, improved endurance,

and larger operational range. In an Aircraft, there are two main sources of drag, the skin

friction drag, and the lift-induced drag. In this paper, we are going to discuss the instances of

drag and how to reduce them to improve airplane efficiency. They include the viscous drag,

the wave drag and the drag due to lift.

Introduction

The goal of every plane manufacturer is to improve the efficiency of their aircraft, and

this includes improving on the speed of the plane as well as reducing the fuel consumption of

the fuel. To Achieve their goal, the manufacturers, therefore, need to work towards reducing

the drag of the aircraft (Gatti et al., 2015). Drag refers to the force which opposes the motion

of the plane in the air. In an airplane, drag is generated by almost all the parts constituting the

aircraft, from the wings to the body and even the engines.

How Drag is Produced

Drag is a mechanical force which is produced by the interaction between a contact, a

solid body and a fluid. Unlike the gravitational field which can be produced even without

contact, in the case of drag, there must be contact between the solid body and the fluids. The

fluid includes both liquid and gasses. Therefore, in instances where there is no contact, then

there is also no drag. Drag do arise as the result of the differences in velocity between the

solid object and the fluid. Also, there must be motion between the fluid and the solid object;

if there is no motion, then there will not be a drag. Since drag is a force, it, therefore, is a

vector quantity which has both magnitude and direction. It always acts in a direction opposite

to the direction of the plane.

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Types of Drag

The different types of drag include the parasitic drag, induced drag, and the wave

drag.

Parasitic Drag

Three various subsets of drag include the form drag, the interference drag, and the

skin friction drag.

Form Drag.

The form drag is also referred to as the pressure drag, and it is formed from the air

flowing over the aircraft. The separated air as Airplane finds its way through the air leads to

the creation of turbulence which in turn leads to the creation of pockets of low and high

pressure leaving behind a force which limits the motion of the airplane. The name form drag

is given to it since it is formed depending on the form or shape of the aircraft. The parts of the

plane leading to the formation of the form drag include the wings and wing flaps, nacelles,

landing gear, wing tanks, engines et cetera (Geraldi et al., 2017).

Interference Drag

This mode of drag results from the intersection of air streams creating eddy currents

and turbulence. Example of the section leading to the creation of the interference drag

includes the intersection between the wing and fuselage at the wing root.

Skin Friction Drag

Results from the actual contact between the air and surface of the aircraft. The

magnitude of the skin friction drag depends on the skin texture of the aircraft’s body.

Induced Drag

This type of drag is due to lift, and it is created because of the vortices at the tip of the

aircraft’s wing. The high pressure underneath the wing makes the airflow at the wing tips to

curl around and in a circular motion from the bottom to the top forming a trailing vortex.

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Wave Drag

Refers to the drag which inhibits the forward movement of the airplane due to the

formation of the shock waves.

How to Reduce Drag

Drag can be divided to include just two broad classes namely the friction drag and the

pressure drag. Therefore, in finding a solution to reduce drag on the airplane, it can be

discussed from two perspectives, and they include the skin friction drag reduction and the

lift-induced drag reduction.

Skin fraction drag reduction

AS mentioned by Rosenberg et al. (2016) airplane manufacturers put most of their

energy to ensure that they overcome skin fraction reduction. Some of the techniques they

adopted to reduce skin fraction drag included smoothening the body of the airplanes, use of

bubbles to reduce the near wall contact in water. The airplane engineers also invented the use

of riblets and large eddy break up devices to reduce on skin fraction drag. Also, they

implemented the use of vortex generators which actively helped in the effective management

of turbulence. Also, they used they reduced turbulent drag by changing the flow properties

and behaviours.

Laminar Flow control technology

Another critical reason for reducing on drag is always to cut on the fuel consumption

of airplanes and to reduce their CO2 emission rate. The laminar flow project is best applied to

achieve the goal of reducing fuel consumption (Mahfoze, & Laizet, 2017). The laminar flow

concept involves the application of suction in regions having direct contact with the cross-

flow of the air. The suctions are applied to minimize contamination phenomenon and to

ensure the lines remain laminar. The recent developments in the adoption of new materials

AIRCRAFT DRAG ON A PLANE 5

and fabrication techniques have led to improved drag reduction. One material that has proved

useful is the Flexible Composite Surface Deturbulator (FCSD).

Lift Induced Drag reduction

One major application of reducing the lift induced Drag is to increase the wings

aspect ratio. However, the increasing the wing aspect ratio has compromised the

aerodynamic, and the structural characteristics and hence the engineers had to come up with

other techniques. The proposed technique was to develop a wing tip device which acted at the

regions where the lift-induced drag originated.

There are several drag techniques which have been developed recently. However, all

the techniques are aimed at increasing the speeds of the airplane and reducing on fuel

consumptions as well as reducing the emission of the Co2 to the environment.

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References

Gatti, D., Quadrio, M., & Frohnapfel, B. (2015). Reynolds Number Effect on Turbulent Drag

Reduction. In 5th European Turbulence Conference, Delft.

Geraldi, N. R., Dodd, L. E., Xu, B. B., Wells, G. G., Wood, D., Newton, M. I., & McHale, G.

(2017). Drag reduction properties of superhydrophobic mesh pipes. Surface

Topography: Metrology and Properties, 5(3), 034001.

Mahfoze, O., & Laizet, S. (2017). Skin-friction drag reduction in a channel flow with

streamwise-aligned plasma actuators. International Journal of Heat and Fluid

Flow, 66, 83-94.

Rosenberg, B. J., Van Buren, T., Fu, M. K., & Smits, A. J. (2016). Turbulent drag reduction

over air-and liquid-impregnated surfaces. Physics of Fluids, 28(1), 015103.

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