FINITE WING THEORY

Consider a wing in a uniform upstream flow, V and let the y0-axis be the axis
along the span centered at the wing root. and let c(y0) be the chord length. We
define the lift per unit span, L0(y0), as that of an infinite span wing whose
geometry and angle of attack to the mean flow are those of the wing at y0. The
corresponding lift coefficient is

, (1)
where c(y0) is the wing chord length at y0. Using the theorem of Kutta-
Joukowski, L0(y0) = ρV Γ(y0), we rewrite (1) as

. (2)
The expression for c` can also be written in terms of the effective angle of attack
αeff = α − αi,
c` = a0(α − αL=0 − αi), (3)
ywhere the induced angle of attack αi is calculated using the Biot-Savart law,

(4)
a0 is a constant. For a thin airfoil, a0 = 2π.
At every position y0 along the span, we can then write

. (5)
Note that α(y0) = α(y0) − αL=0(y0) is determined by the wing geometry and angle
of attack. Substituting the expression (4) for αi in (5) gives the fundamental
equation of the finite wing theory,

(6)
The integral in (6) should be understood as a Cauchy principal value.
We note that wings are symmetric, i.e.,
We introduce the transformation

(7)

(8)

Equation (6) can then be rewritten as

(9)

We note that Γ(y0) vanishes at both ends of the wing. Moreover, we assume the
wing to be symmetric, i.e., Γ(−y0) = Γ(y0). This suggests the following expansion
for Γ :

(10)
A1,A2,..., AN are constants to be determined. The condition of wing symmetry,
Γ(π − θ) = Γ(θ), implies An = 0 for even n.

We note that

(11)
Substituting (10) into (4 and 9) and using (11), we obtain the following
expressions for the induced angle of attack

, (12)
and the fundamental equation (9) for the finite wing becomes

(13)
Equation (5) must be satisfied at N locations of the span. This gives N equations
for determining A1, A3,..., AN. The expressions for the wing lift, L, and induced
drag, Di, are readily obtained in terms of Γ,

(14)

(15)

We define the wing lift and induced drag coefficients as follows

,
(16)

(17)
This gives :

(18)

(19)

which is commonly cast as

. (20)
For a wing with no geometric twist

CL = a(α − αL=0)

(21)
For a thin airfoil, a0 = 2π.
 ELLIPTIC WING

For a wing of uniform cross-section and no geometric twist, α(θ) is constant. We

further assume the wing to have an elliptic planform, i.e.,

or c(θ) = c0sinθ Substituting (11)

into (5), we find the following solution

All aerodynamic quantities can now be calculated :

Lift-induced drag
The total aerodynamic force acting on a body is usually thought of as having two
components, lift and drag. By definition, the component of force parallel to the
oncoming flow is called drag; and the component perpendicular to the oncoming
flow is called lift. At practical angles of attack the lift greatly exceeds the drag.
Lift is produced by the changing direction of the flow around a wing. The change
of direction results in a change of velocity (even if there is no speed change, just
as seen in uniform circular motion), which is an acceleration. To change the
direction of the flow therefore requires that a force be applied to the fluid; lift is
simply the reaction force of the fluid acting on the wing.
To produce lift, air below the wing is at a higher pressure than the air pressure
above the wing. On a wing of finite span, this pressure difference causes air to
flow from the lower surface wing root, around the wingtip, towards the upper
surface wing root. This spanwise flow of air combines with chordwise flowing
air, causing a change in speed and direction, which twists the airflow and
produces vortices along the wing trailing edge. The vortices created are unstable,
and they quickly combine to produce wingtip vortices.[7] The resulting vortices
change the speed and direction of the airflow behind the trailing edge, deflecting
it downwards, and thus inducing downwash behind the wing.
Wingtip vortices modify the airflow around a wing, reducing wing's ability to
generate lift, so that it requires a higher angle of attack for the same lift, which
tilts the total aerodynamic force rearwards and increases the drag component of
that force. The angular deflection is small and has little effect on the lift.
However, there is an increase in the drag equal to the product of the lift force
and the angle through which it is deflected. Since the deflection is itself a
function of the lift, the additional drag is proportional to the square of the lift.
Drag divergence Mach number
The drag divergence Mach number is the Mach number at which
the aerodynamic drag on an airfoil or airframe begins to increase rapidly as the
Mach number continues to increase. This increase can cause the drag
coefficient to rise to more than ten times its low speed value.
The value of the drag divergence Mach number is typically greater than 0.6;
therefore it is a transonic effect. The drag divergence Mach number is usually
close to, and always greater than, the critical Mach number. Generally, the drag
coefficient peaks at Mach 1.0 and begins to decrease again after the transition
into the supersonic regime above approximately Mach 1.2.
The large increase in drag is caused by the formation of a shock wave on the
upper surface of the airfoil, which can induce flow separation and adverse
pressure gradients on the aft portion of the wing. This effect requires
that aircraft intended to fly at supersonic speeds have a large amount of thrust.
In early development of transonic and supersonic aircraft, a steep dive was often
used to provide extra acceleration through the high drag region around Mach 1.0.
This steep increase in drag gave rise to the popular false notion of an
unbreakable sound barrier, because it seemed that no aircraft technology in the
foreseeable future would have enough propulsive force or control authority to
overcome it. Indeed, one of the popular analytical methods for calculating drag
at high speeds, the Prandtl-Glauert rule, predicts an infinite amount of drag at
Mach 1.0.