Optimisation of lift to drag ratio for a wing in ground effect

This paper aims to investigate the effects of changing the shape of the aerofoil of the wing by changing its camber, thickness and maximum camber location to identify the design trends where the ground effect has the largest impact. Aircrafts have already been developed taking advantage of the ground effect (called WIG’s for wing in ground effect vehicles) to cover large expanses of flat planes much more efficiently than their freestream counterparts. However these are currently not used as standard alternatives. This is partly because it is a field in which limited research has been carried out, but there is great potential for very efficient aircraft that may wish to fly in low altitude over great expanses of water or relatively flat plane. This investigation conducted its primary research using computational fluid dynamics, validated against wind tunnel data, and several full factorial design of experiments and found that the only significant variables that affected the lift to drag ratio of a wing utilizing the ground effect were the maximum camber and angle of attack of the wing against the freestream. This investigation also found a potential area to optimize a wing utilizing the ground effect between zero and six degrees angle of attack