Numerical Simulation of the Flow around a Mobile Winglet.

The purpose of this paper was to determine the improvements that could be achieved by retrofitting a mobile winglet to a small airplane wing, taking into account only the aerodynamic effects (not considering the structural aspect). The CFD analysis is a crucial step in any conceptual design phase, as it provides reasonably accurate data before the experiments take place. Therefore, we performed numerical simulations for 9 winglet configurations and a test wing at 7 different angles of attack, considering a fully developed turbulent flow (Re ∼ 10⁶) to see if and how substantial are the aerodynamic advantages. A NACA2412 airfoil was used as it is quite common for small airplanes used in pilot schools and for recreational flights. We chose the RANS model, combined with Realizable k-ε and SIMPLE algorithm as they have an acceptable computational cost and reasonable accuracy [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]