Airflow Numerical Analysis on Low Speed Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Winglet

Reliability and stability of unmanned aircraft or Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) is strongly influenced by the design of aircraft, especially in the shape of the wings toward the flying characteristics. The effect of the superior aerodynamic character can improve the aircraft performance, save the fuel and maintain flying stability of the aircraf t. One improvement on aerodynamic character is the addition of winglets. The winglet will increase lift and reduce drag with a more compact wingspan dimension due to the reduction of wing tip vortex effect. Nevertheless, winglets are widely used on passenger aircraf t. Meanwhile, it is rarely used on unmanned aerial vehicle. . Research on the character of winglets for improving UAV’s performance becomes particularly important given the limited time of UAV which has become a major obstacle. With increased flight efficiency obtained from winglet configuration, it is expected that UAV will be able to fly longer. This study will test characteristic of winglets shape on the wings of an aircraft through numerical modeling to gain aerodynamic flow visualization. From the modeling, it is shown that the use of winglet is able to reduce the effects of with tip vortex. The use of sloping outwards rounded winglet will give a significant increase in the lift force. Winglet slope projections towards the horizontal line will increase the lift force. For flying conditions, the highest efficiency value is in the Angle of Attack 7.50. Keywords : UAV, wing tip vortex, winglet, numeric method, CF