Drag

The Fundamental Forces on an Aircraft in Steady and Level Flight

Drag is the rear ward force that opposes the motion of the aircraft.
 Sources of Drag

Parasite Drag
•The air resistance of all aircraft components: wings, fuselage, tail surfaces, nacelles, undercarriage.

Parasite drag is composed of:

•Profile Drag (boundary layer drag).
• Pressure Drag (Form Drag).
• Skin Friction Drag.

Induced Drag
The drag directly associated with the generation of lift

•Interference Drag.
•Wave Drag.
Parasite Drag
Pressure Drag(Form Drag)
•Drag due to pressure field in the boundary layer around the
component

Skin Friction Drag

•Drag due to surface friction in the boundary layer around the
component

Wave Drag
•Drag due to shockwaves in supersonic flow.

Interference Drag
•The increment in drag due to the proximity of two components
wing/fuselage, wing /engine.
 Profile Drag Coefficient

The amount of profile drag associated with a body is:

For cars and missiles and other bodies the CD is on the projected are a perpendicular to the oncoming flow (frontal
area).
 Profile Drag Coefficient
The amount of profile drag associated with a body is:

The profile drag of a thin plate lying parallel to the oncoming flow is mostly due to skin friction. Therefore area
for both surfaces of the plate is used to calculate drag.

For an aerofoil the area used is the product of the span

and the mean chord.
 Profile Drag Coefficient

The drag coefficient (CD) is independent of the size of a body (is non-
dimensional).
But depends on:
The shape of the body.
Surface roughness.
Flow Reynolds number.
The Mach number (for high speed flow)
 Profile Drag Coefficient

Pressure field is created Lower pressure region

The magnitude of the Form Drag
is a function of the flow Reynolds
number.

Viscosity effects Force acting in the opposite direction to its motion.

•When viscosity effects cause the flow to follow the surface shape.

•A pressure field is created which results in a lower pressure region towards the tail of the component, possible
flow separation and a trailing wake.
•The difference in pressure between the front and rear of the component will result in a force acting in the opposite
direction to its motion.(The force is Form Drag).
 Profile Drag Coefficient

Bluff body Flow separation

Very high form drag

•A body such as a flat plate perpendicular to the flow is known as a bluff body.
•It causes rapid flow separation and very high form drag.
•The skin friction effects apply only over the thin edges of the plate and are therefore negligible.
•The sum of the form and friction drag on a flat plate placed perpendicular to a flow is many times greater than that
for a plate placed in line with the flow.
 Form Drag Reduction

•Form drag can be reduced by streamlining the shape of the component especially the
component leading and trailing surfaces.
•Sharp corners cause rapid flow separation and should therefore be removed.
•The introduction of streamlining measures are likely to result in some of the reduced form
drag being offset by an increase in friction drag.
 Profile Drag Coefficient

•The strength of the pressure gradient, and the associated drag force, can be reduced by adding a fairing to the tail of
the component to produce a gradual reduction in the cross-sectional area.

•This promotes a gradual deceleration of the air in this region which helps prevent flow separation.
•At Re = 1 x 106, streamlining of a circular rod in a crossflow could produce a 20 times reduction in drag.
Profile Drag Coefficients for a cylinder

•At very low Reynolds numbers (Re < 100)

the inertial forces are negligible compared to
the viscous forces.
•The drag is essentially proportional to the
flow velocity
•The drag coefficient is inversely
proportional to the Reynolds number.
 Profile Drag Coefficients for a cylinder

For Re > 200, the flow separates at a point just downstream of

the centre of the cylinder

The vortices which

produce the form drag
become significant
and the form drag
greatly outweighs the
friction drag.

From 200 < Re < 2 x 105the drag coefficient for the laminar boundary layer is essentially constant.
 Profile Drag Coefficients for a cylinder

At Re ~ 3 x 105the flow becomes turbulent

The subsequent turbulent mixing increases the
momentum and energy of the boundary layer.

This results in a reduction in

the size of the wake and an
associated reduction in drag
coefficient.

The boundary layer remains attached to the rear cylinder well

beyond the separation point of a laminar boundary layer.
Profile Drag Coefficients for Bluff Shapes

The drag coefficient of a bluff

shape depends on the width of
the wake behind the body.
 Skin Friction Drag

•Skin friction drag can contribute 40% of the total drag for a large commercial aircraft.

•Therefore we need to calculate the drag due to aircraft surface drag.

•The methods for calculating this drag for the aircraft surfaces can be related initially to flows
over a flat plate.
 Thin Flat Plate in the Direction of the Airflow

The friction drag coefficient Cf can be defined as:

For a thin plate of length x and width L,

 Thin Flat Plate in the Direction of the Airflow

The friction drag coefficient Cf can be defined as:

For a thin plate of length x and with L,

Laminar Flow.
Blasius equation for average drag coefficient from leading to trailing edge of flat plate.

Turbulent Flow.
Schlichting empirical formula:
 Thin Flat Plate in the Direction of the Airflow

The graph shows that turbulent friction is

larger than laminar.

•The velocities near to the wall are higher

for turbulent boundary layers than laminar
boundary layers.

•The flow has a reduced risk of separation

from the surface.

•Importance to keep the boundary layer

attached to the aircraft wing or fuselage.

•Measures are sometimes taken to

deliberately promote turbulent flow
 Thin Flat Plate in the Direction of the Airflow

The overall boundary layer drag is a sum of :

•skin friction drag.
• higher for a turbulent boundary layer.

•profile drag which will be.

• lower for an attached flow.

•The promotion of turbulence may also actually reduce the overall drag.

Dimples on the surface of a golf ball promote a turbulent

boundary layer to delay flow separation and hence reduce
profile drag at the expense of a small increase in friction drag
Effect of Mach
Number on Drag
 Drag due Effects of Mach Number

Compressibility has a small effect on laminar boundary layer friction.

and a much larger effect on turbulent boundary layer friction.
Methods to Reduce
Skin Friction Drag
 Boundary Layer Suction

Suction of boundary layer

Boundary layer controlled by suction

Vacuum
chamber

Reenergising the boundary layer

Add energy to boundary layer by
blowing high pressure air through
holes or slots

High pressure air source

•Boundary layer suction can be used on aircraft wings to prevent laminar and turbulent separation, by
removing the low momentum flow close to the surface
Tangential Slot Injection

During flap operation.

Flow from the lower surface of the wing is injected into the
upper surface boundary layer to help delay upper surface flow
separation
 Riblets

Considerable research has been undertaken to find a surface

having less drag than that of a flat plate.

Considerable research has been undertaken to find a surface

having less drag than that of a flat plate. Studies, including the
analysis of fast-swimming sharks and dolphins, have shown that
small grooves (riblets) aligned with the flow can modify the
near-wall structure of the boundary layer leading to ~ 8%
reduction in drag.
 Calculation of Aircraft Parasite Drag

The reference length for the Reynolds number for skin friction
calculations should be:
•Fuselage.
Body length

•Nacelle.
Nacelle length.

•Wing, tail plane, fin.

Mean aero dynamic chord(MAC).
 Drag due to Effect of Surface Roughness

The presence of :
Rivets
Skin joints
Windows
Doors

Could result in a substantial increase in turbulent flow drag

coefficients compared to the smooth surface values.
 Total Profile Drag

•The Total profile drag of the wing, tail, fuselage, etc.= Skin friction
drag +Pressure drag.
•The pressure drag portion can be considered by applying an
appropriate factor to the skin friction drag.
•The pressure drag of aerodynamic surfaces (wing, tail plane, etc)
depends upon the aerofoil thickness ratio.
•A thicker aerofoil will have a larger adverse pressure gradient on
its rear portion which will thicken the boundary layer and increase
the pressure drag.
 Pressure drag

CDo=Wing profile drag coefficient

=KCF(Swetted/Sreference).

Swetted=actual area in contact with the air.

=2xplanform area(+~2%foraerofoilcurvature).
Sref=wing plan form area.

K=form factor=correction to account for pressure drag

K depends upon aerofoil t/c ratio and wing sweep angle at
quarter chord ᴧ.
 Pressure drag of the fuselage

The pressure (form) drag of the fuselage and engine nacelles is related to the fineness ratio.

Fineness ratio = length

maximum thickness

A thicker body will produce an increased pressure drag.

 Pressure drag of the fuselage

CDo= Fuselage profile drag coefficient.

= K CF
K = form factor.
= correction to account for pressure drag.
K depends upon body fineness ratio.
Swetted= actual area in contact with the
 Interference Drag

Boundary layers and pressure distributions of two bodies in close proximity in a moving airflow can interact.

This may result in a net combination drag higher than the sum of the independent drag values of the two bodies.

Wing/fuselage interference drag could add ~ 4% to the wing profile drag

Cooling Drag

•The cooling of aircraft engines and gearboxes may often

involve the ducting of air across their surfaces or through
heat exchangers.
•Air passing through these ducts experiences a pressure
drop which extracts energy from the flow and therefore
imposes a cooling drag.
•The drag associated with the cooling of a light aircraft
engine could amount to 6% of the power produced by the
engine.
 Wave Drag

•Wave drag is associated with the shock waves formed when the flow over the aircraft surfaces

becomes supersonic.

•The changes in pressure, temperature and density of the air as it passes through the shock absorbs

energy.

•The propulsion unit must compensate by providing that energy.

•Therefore it is regarded as a drag force.

 Total Drag Breakdown

The typical drag breakdown for a commercial transport aircraft and military fighter aircraft.
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