Winglet Design and Analysis for Cessna 152 - A Numerical Study

During flight an emergent circulatory flow pattern named vortex is observed at wing tips producing induced drag. An approach to reduce this effect is by implementing winglets. Winglets are small wing-like lifting surfaces, fitted at the tip of some wings, usually with the objective of decreasing trailing vortex drag and thereby increasing the aerodynamic efficiency of the wing. The aim of the project is to design and analyze the effect of winglets for Cessna 152 by varying the cant angle and sweep angle. This model has been selected since it provides a good choice for Pilots first airplane. A baseline wing model was designed in CATIA V5, correspondingly wings with winglet models were designed with a fixed taper ratio of 0.2 and different cant and sweep angles. The lift to drag ratio is evaluated at different angles of attack by varying winglet design parameters. Different wing configurations with various Cant and Sweep angles were analyzed at sea level conditions using K-ω SST turbulent model in ANSYS FLUENT and best winglet with desired characteristics for optimum performance is selected to improve the overall efficiency of the wing.