Computed Effect of Wing Tip Configuration on Wing Load Characteristics of a High Speed Aircraft

The wing tip configuration of an aircraft is important structurally and aerodynamically. The formation of wing tip vortices not only add to the induced drag but also decrease the lift produced by the wing. This aspect becomes significantly important for high speed aircraft that have low aspect ratio wings. In this paper effect of wing tip configurations of a high speed aircraft equipped with wingtip missile on its wing load characteristics is presented. Normal force coefficient has been computed for the wing panel of the aircraft for both with and without wingtip missile in transonic fight regime and a wide range of angle of attack. It is observed that the wing tip missile considerably alters the strength and structure of the wingtip vortices. It has also observed that as much as 20% increase in normal force coefficient occurs when the wingtip missile is mounted. This difference between the wing loads of clean wing and missile mounted wing diminishes as the angle of attack is increased, this is due the shifting low pressure region on the wing upper surface from wing tip towards wing root as the root strake becomes effective.