AE69006

AEROSPACE LABORATORY Ⅱ

Measurement of Forces & Moment for a

Delta Wing

Department of Aerospace Engineering

Indian Institute of Technology,
Kharagpur

Submitted to: Submitted by:

Prof. Sandeep Saha R L Sanya Shabir
(19AE60R19)
AIM:
The objective of present experiment is to estimate the Lift & Drag forces and the moments
generated on a Delta wing kept in a wind tunnel at angles of attack ranging from 0o to 45o using
a strain gauge based six component-based sting balance.

APPARATUS:
The apparatus used for performing the required experiment is as follows:
Given Delta Wing
Six component Sting Balance
Data Acquisition Box
Low Subsonic Wind Tunnel

INTRODUCTION:
As the name suggests, the delta wing is a triangular shaped like the Greek letter delta (∆) wing.It
was long studied but it’s application in flights was never considered significant till the jet age
when high speed flights became possible and its suitability was discovered. The delta wing was
first used by Alexander Lippisch, a German engineer. The delta wing advances the swept wing
concept, which involves pulling the wings even further back and creating even less drag. Swept
wing needs more forward speed to produce lift than the rectangular wing, but produces much less
drag in the process, and thus the aircraft can fly faster. Delta wings have
economic/manufacturing feasibility along with several aerodynamic characteristics & structural
advantages. To summarise aerodynamically, delta wings have really good stalling characteristics
which make them apt for extremely rough manoeuvres, high climb rates and better control.
Structurally, since these wings are not mounted the way rectangular wings are, they have a
longer root chord ‘making it stronger at the fuselage. The structural benefits increase
phenomenally in delta wings and thus probability of structural failures reduces significantly. The
aircraft however has to fly extremely fast for this wing to be effective. This is why it’s only
found on supersonic aircraft such as fighter jets (F-15, F-16, MiG-21 etc.) and the Space Shuttle
orbiter. Although delta wings are primarily known for their supersonic characteristics, their
subsonic characteristics are very important too. Landing, take off and a lot of flight operations
happen in subsonic/high subsonic range and thus the study of subsonic behaviour of delta wing is
important too. In this experiment we calculate the lift, drag and pitching moment of the delta
wing in a low subsonic wind tunnel. For this, we calculate three force components by using a
sting balance and do the appropriate conversions in the wind axes to find lift and drag.

THEORY:
Lift generation in delta wing:
The lift generation in a delta wing happens differently than a rectangular wing. In a rectangular
wing the pressure distribution varies between the upper and the lower surface and this leads to
the generation of lift. In a delta wing, the difference in pressure causes the formation of large
vortices at the leading edge which are known as leading edge vortices. These vortices separate
because of the sharp leading edge. The flow separates near the leading edge and then reattaches
at the upper surface of the wing. The leading edge core has a very strong vortex which is very
difficult to break. These vortices are spiral in shape.

Near the root of the delta wing, the flow is close to straight and the pressure is lesser than the
free stream but not so much to create a significant lifting force. The main component of lift is the
vortex that drops the pressure near the leading edge drastically and creates a very strong suction.
The stalling angle of delta wings is very high but they have a lesser CL vs AOA slope which
means they generate lesser lift than rectangular wings. They therefore have to be kept at a higher
angle of attack to generate sufficient lift. The leading edge vortex grows stronger with increasing
angle of attack and reaches at peak after which it drops. This angle is known as the stalling angle.

Six Component Based Strain Gauge

The sting balance used in this experiment has 6 strain gauge components two normal forces, two
side forces, one axial force and one rolling moment. The 6 components can be measured by
mounting the delta wing on the sting balance and connecting the wires to the DAQ box. The
principle is the same as a single string gauge, it consists of resistors that increase or decrease in
length based on the type of force they are subjected to. This causes them to change the resistance
and the potential difference across them when they are connected in a wheat-stone bridge. These
changes are then appropriately converted and we get the associated strain.

Theoretical Model for Lift Calculation:

The present approach assumes that if flow reattachment occurs on the upper sur- B face the total
lift can be calculated as the sum of a potential-flow lift and a lift associated with the existence of
the separated leading-edge spiral vortices. First, the potential flow lift will be examined with
regard to the effect of high angles of attack and modified leading-edge conditions. Then, the
vortex lift will be determined by a method in which the vortex flow is assumed to be related to
the potential flow about the leading edge.

A Kutta type flow condition is considered to account for the leading edge separation of the
vortex and so, no leading edge suction can be produced.

The normal force can be determined by applying the Kutta-Joukowski theorem using the velocity
component parallel to the wing chord; thus,

Where, Γ is a total effective circulation given by:

After doing the necessary substitutions, we get:

and

For the vortex lift component, the normal force associated with leading edge vortex is:

The lift component can be given by:

By applying the Kutta-Joukowski theorem using velocity components normal to the wing chord
plane, the leading-edge thrust is given by

Where wi is the effective downwash velocity induced onto the wing by the trailing vortex.
By substituting Γ, we get the coefficient to be:

Since wi is proportional to Γ, which in turn is proportional to Vsinα by virtue of the boundary

condition, then it follows that wi/Vsinα is independent of angle of attack. Therefore, by use of
the induced-drag relationships of small-angle theory, it can be shown that

By substituting, we get:

We get,
The final equation for coefficient of lift is:

Where, KP is the constant which comes from the potential flow theory & is the constant
which comes from vortex theory
The coefficients KP and can be estimated from the below diagrams, as functions of Aspect
Ratio.

Fig. KP and as functions of Aspect Ratio

PROCEDURE:
1. Mount the delta wing on a sting balance and mount it inside the test section of the wind
tunnel.
2. Adjust the wing to 0 degrees angle of attack using the digital protractor. Connect the strain
gauge wires to the data acquisition box. Reset the DAQ box (switch off and then on). Wait of
35 seconds.
3. Turn on the wind tunnel. Measure the free stream and stagnation conditions using the gangue
manometer. Now note down the readings of forces N1, N2 and Ax.
4. Turn off the tunnel. Change the angle of attack and then reset the DAQ box. Repeat the
above steps for angles of attacks ranging from 0 to 45 degrees.
5. Calculate the lift and drag forces by using the appropriate conversions and plot C L, CD and
CM vs alpha.

RESULT ANALYSIS:
Pressure difference measured by manometer (ΔP) = 180.27 Pa
Density (ρ) = 1.176 kg/m3
Velocity (V) = sqrt ((2* ΔP)/ ρ) = 17.49636 m/s
Area = 0.02295m2

EXPERIMENTAL DATA:

THEORETICAL DATA:

Potential flow
lift
Slender wing theory 2
cd cl vortex cd vortex cl polhamus cd polhamus
cl theoretical theoretical correction correction correction correction
0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000
0.069 0.006 0.084 0.007 0.081 0.007
0.135 0.023 0.194 0.034 0.183 0.032
0.198 0.051 0.326 0.085 0.300 0.079
0.254 0.087 0.472 0.166 0.427 0.150
0.303 0.128 0.623 0.277 0.557 0.246
0.342 0.171 0.771 0.419 0.682 0.367
0.371 0.213 0.905 0.587 0.794 0.508
0.389 0.250 1.016 0.776 0.885 0.665
0.395 0.280 1.095 0.980 0.948 0.831
0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000
PLOTS:

CL Vs AOA
1.2

1
COEFFICIENT OF LIFT

0.8

Cl
0.6
cl theoretical

0.4 cl vortex correction

cl polhamus correction
0.2

0
0 10 20 30 40 50
ANGLE OF ATTACK

CD Vs AOA
1.2

1
COEFFICIENT OF DRAG

0.8

Cd
0.6
cd theoretical
cd vortex correction
0.4
cd polhamus correction

0.2

0
0 10 20 30 40 50
ANGLE OF ATTACK
 MOMENT COEFFICIENT Vs AOA
0
0 10 20 30 40 50
-0.02

-0.04
Moment coefficient

-0.06

-0.08
Cm
-0.1

-0.12

-0.14

-0.16
Angle of attack

EXP. & THEORETICAL DRAG POLAR

0.7

0.6

0.5
COEFFICIENT OF DRAG

0.4

0.3 DRAG POLAR

TH. DRAG POLAR
0.2

0.1

0
0 2 4 6 8 10 12
-0.1
COEFFICIENT OF LIFT
 CL vs AOA (for All group Re)
1.4

1.2

0.8
Re = 3.045E+05
0.6 Re = 3.1413E+05
Cl

Re = 3.26E+05
0.4
Re = 3.336E+05
0.2

0
0 10 20 30 40 50
-0.2
AOA (in deg)

CD vs AOA (for All groups Re)

1.4

1.2

0.8
Re = 3.046E+05
Cd

0.6 Re= 3.1413E+05

Re= 3.26E+05
0.4
Re = 3.336E+05
0.2

0
0 10 20 30 40 50
-0.2
AOA (in deg)

DISCUSSION:
According to the theoretical values the coefficient of lift is supposed to monotonically
increase till 45 degrees. Clearly, that is not the case. We find the delta wing to stall at
around 400. It should be near it more or less since our increment is in 5 degrees so minute
differences in stall angles (1 or 2 degrees) cannot be captured. General appropriation with
theoretical predictions is observed in this experiment. A parabolic-like nature of the Drag
Polar, a close to linear plot of the CL distribution and stalling angles close to 400 are most
 of the predictions that we can refer to as a validation of our experimental data. The
theoretically calculated values of CL were close to the experimentally observed values till
35 degrees after which significant difference between the two was observed. Difference
as large as 25% can be seen at an angle of 40 degrees. The difference increases as the
wing stalls at 40 degrees which is not accommodated by the model used in calculating the
lifting coefficient.
The sources of error are mostly human error and setup limitations. We have observed
small forces acting on the wing at zero angle of attack. Since the wing is symmetrical,
ideally the forces should have been zero which is clearly not the case. This is probably
because of small angles (not zero) which cannot be corrected. Other possible reasons
could be an unbalanced wheat-stone bridge in any or all of the strain gauges.
A force measuring instrument thus consists of a force transducer and a display on which
the measured force can be read. The instrument consists of a sensor and a display on
which the result of the measurement is output in the form of a numerical value with its
assosciated unit. The different types of force measuring instruments are:
Digital Force Gauge: A digital force gauge, often called a push pull force gauge or
tension and compression force gauge, is used in material testing, quality control and
assurance, research, development, product testing, laboratory and educational
applications. It has both normal and peak operating modes.
Six Component Based Strain Gauge: The sting balance used in this experiment has 6
strain gauge components two normal forces, two side forces, one axial force and one
rolling moment. The 6 components can be measured by mounting the delta wing on the
sting balance and connecting the wires to the DAQ box. The principle is the same as a
single string gauge, it consists of resistors that increase or decrease in length based on the
type of force they are subjected to. This causes them to change the resistance and the
potential difference across them when they are connected in a wheat-stone bridge. These
changes are then appropriately converted and we get the associated strain.

REFERENCES:
1. Anderson, J.D., “Modern Compressible Flow with Historical Perspective”, 3rd Ed.,
McGraw-Hill Series in Aeronautical and Aerospace Engineering, New York, 2003.
2. Polhamus, E.C., “A Concept of the Vortex Lift of Sharp-Edge Delta Wings Based On a
Leading-Edge-Suction Analogy”, Langley Research Centre Langley Station, Hampton, VA,
1966.