Year 2 Drag Polar Assignment P4096835

Calculating the Drag Polar for a Jetstream-31.

Author: Nathan J. Cook

School of Science and Engineering, Teesside University

Module:

MMD2033-N - Aircraft Performance and Stability

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Year 2 Drag Polar Assignment P4096835

Introduction

This essay aims to use existing knowledge and derivations of lift and drag of an aircraft in
order to estimate a value for a particular aircrafts polar drag equation. The aircraft type used
is the Jetstream 31 which is classed as a small to medium sized craft weighing over 5700kg.

In order to complete this assignment, it was necessary to research formulae used in

performance measurements and apply them to a real aircraft. Data and information was taken
from a number of books and sources and applied to my own knowledge in order to get the
estimated equation needed. This equation was then used to find the Jetstream 31s coefficient
of lift under the conditions of minimum drag speed and minimum power speed.

Taken from airliners.net, data such as the wing span (15.85m) and wing area (25.1m^2) were taken
which was vital in completing the calculations (Airliners.net, 2017)

Deriving the Drag Polar Equation

Drag, Lift and their coefficients

In most conventional aircraft, the overall drag is calculated by splitting it into two
components as shown in equation 1.0:
D=D o + Di (Equation 1.0)

These two parts, D o and Di represent the zero-lift and induced drag respectively that
an aircraft produces whilst in flight. The zero-lift drag is independent of lift and is a function
of the aircrafts external shape.

1
Starting with the general formula for drag, D= V 2 S C d , where C d is the coefficient
2
of drag, we can represent the zero-lift and induced drag coefficients similarly:

1
D i= V 2 S C di (Equation 1.1)
2

1
D 0= V 2 S C d 0 (Equation 1.2)
2

Finally, from equations 1.0, 1.1 and 1.2 we can deduce that the overall drag coefficient for a
small to medium class aircraft is represented by:

C D =C Do+ C Di (Equation 1.3)

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Year 2 Drag Polar Assignment P4096835

Drag Polar

From equations 1.1 and 1.2 we can see that drag is made up of two separate parts. The
induced drag is a function of the airplanes velocity, as the aircrafts velocity increases its
induced drag decreases, therefore it is inversely proportional to the air speed V^2. Its zero-lift
drag is directly proportional to the velocity as it increases when V^2 increases. These two
relationships are shown in Graph 1.0 below:

Graph 1.0 (Figure 3.2, Sadraey M, 2009).

In order to come up with an equation for the Jetstream 31s drag polar we must first combine
the two curves shown in Graph 1.0 which will result in a parabolic curve. As quoted in
Aircraft Performance Analysis by Sadraey M; Drag polar is a math model for the variation
of drag coefficient as a function of lift coefficient (Sadraey, M. 2009). Since we now an
equation representing the drag coefficient of the aircraft we can formulate an equation for the
drag polar.

Drag polar equation

As shown in Graph 1.2, when the coefficient of lift is plotted against the coefficient of drag
for an aircraft the resulting ling resembles a parabolic curve. Because of this, it is adequate to
assume that the standard equation form for such a curve will be accurate enough in estimating
it:

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Year 2 Drag Polar Assignment P4096835

2
y=a+b x (Equation 2.0)

Graph 1.2 (plot.ly, 2016).

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Year 2 Drag Polar Assignment P4096835

We know that the y axis is the coefficient of drag, and the x axis is the coefficient of lift, so
Equation 2.0 becomes:
2
C D =a+b C L (Equation 2.1)

In a parabolic curve the a value represents the lowest value of y on the graph. At this point
there is zero lift and it is often referred to as C Do . As well as this, the parameter b has
been represented by aerodynamicists as the symbol of K and refer to it as induced drag
correction factor (Sadraey, M. 2009). We can now re-write Equation 2.1 to include these:

C D =C Do+ K C L2 (Equation 2.2)

Calculating C Do

Now that we have the basic equation shape from Equation 2.2, we are able to find values of
C Do and K and thus find out defining equation for the polar drag of a Jetstream 31 aircraft.

The calculation of C Do is extremely difficult and tedious as it requires drag coefficient

values from a large number of different sections of the aircraft added together to give a total
value, with each section of the aircraft having a different calculation in order to get the value.

Fuselage, wing, horizontal tail, vertical tail, landing gear, nacelle, strut, high lift device (such
as flap) are all examples of components in which their coefficients are needed in order to get
a correct overall result. Because of this, I will be using the value of 0.0376 (researchgate.net,
2016) from an aircraft research website as it goes beyond the scope of this assignment, and
the dimensional values for each of the components mentioned above are unknown.

Calculating K

To calculate K, we must use the mathematical relationship that is given to it:

1
K= (Equation 2.3)
e AR

This equation has two unknowns. AR, which is the wing aspect ratio and e which represents
wing Oswald efficiency factor. AR is a function of the planes wing area (S) and its wing span
(b) and e shows the efficiency of a wings lift producing ability:

b2
AR= (Equation 2.4)
S

e=1.78 ( 10.045 AR 0.68 )0.64 (Equation 2.5)

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Year 2 Drag Polar Assignment P4096835

We know the value of the wing span and wing area from the introduction, these are 15.85m
and 25.1m^2 respectively (airliners.net, 2017). Putting these into equation 2.4 gives us a
value for AR as 10.008 or 10.01

This value can be placed into Equation 2.5 to get a value for e as 0.756.

Calculating K now becomes:

1
K= (Equation 2.6)
0.756 10.01

K = 0.042

Equation estimate and graph

Finally, using the calculated and researched values for K and C Do we are able to insert
them into Equation 2.2 to get our estimate for the Jetstream 31s polar drag equation:

C D =0.0376+0.042 C L2

Graph 1.3 (wolframalpha.com, 2017).

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Year 2 Drag Polar Assignment P4096835

Values for C L

To find the coefficient of lift at the minimum drag speed we use the equation:

C L=
C Do
K
(Equation 3.0)

Putting in our values for K and C Do from earlier we get C L = 0.946

As well as this we can find the value of C L for the minimum power speed using:

C L= 3
C Do
K
(Equation 3.1)

Again, using calculated values we get an answer of C L = 1.639

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Year 2 Drag Polar Assignment P4096835

References

Airliners.net. 2017. Airliners.net. [ONLINE] Available at:

http://www.airliners.net/aircraft-data/british-aerospace-jetstream-31super-31/55.

[Accessed 03 March 2017].

ResearchGate. 2017. Jetstream 31 national flying laboratory: Lift and drag

measurement and modelling (PDF Download Available). [ONLINE] Available at:

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/309875114_Jetstream_31_national_flying_l

aboratory_Lift_and_drag_measurement_and_modelling. [Accessed 03 March 2017].

plot.ly. 2016. Drag-lift chart. [ONLINE] Available at:

https://plot.ly/~amruthwo/42/drag-coefficient-vs-lift-coefficient.png. [Accessed 3

March 2017].

Sadraey M., Aircraft Performance Analysis, VDM Verlag Dr. Mller, 2009.

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Year 2 Drag Polar Assignment P4096835

Wolfram|Alpha, 2017. Wolfram|Alpha: Computational Knowledge Engine.

[ONLINE] Available at: https://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=y

%3D0.0376%2B0.042x%5E2. [Accessed 03 March 2017].