Numerical Calculations of Wing Tip Vortices and Effects of Suction at Wing Tip

In three-dimensional wing, the induced drag occurs by wing tip vortices. So it is important to study the characteristics of wing tip vortices in order to reduce the induced drag. In this paper, at first comparing the numerically calculated results of three-dimensional incompressible flow using several turbulence models and the law speed wind tunnel experimental results using a two-dimensional hot wire anemometer, the characteristics of wing tip vortices are studied. In the numerical calculations, the multipurpose fluid analysis software FLUENT and the pre-processor GAMBIT are used on popular PC. The numerical results that were obtained by using the RNG k-ε turbulence model is good agreement with the experimental results. Then controlling the flow near the wing tip by suction, the effects against wing tip vortices are studied by numerically and experimentally. It is shown by numerical calculation and experiment that the strength of wing tip vortices decrease by appropriate suction at the wing tip.