Simulation of 3D Co-Flow Jet Wings with Circular End-Plates

This paper numerically investigates aerodynamic efficiency improvements for Co-Flow Jet (CFJ) wings using circular end-plates with two diameters: One Chord (1C) and Two Chord (2C). Circular plates are simple devices for mitigating tip vortex, and are particularly useful for high lift wings using coflow jet airfoils. The simulations were performed using a Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) solver with the Menter Shear Stress Transport (SST) model. A 5th-order WENO scheme is utilized for the inviscid flux, and a 2nd order central differencing scheme is used for the viscous terms. Compared to the CFJ wings with no tip end-plates, the results show that CFJ wings equipped with one-chord diameter end-plates approximately increase the average CL by 9.2%, CL/CD by 18.4%, (CL/CD)c by 18.3%, and (C^2_L/CD)c by 31.1%. Compared to the CFJ wings using one chord end-plates, the results show that CFJ wings equipped with two chord end-plates improve the average CL and CL/CD by 9.7% and 6.8%, respectively. The average (CL/CD)c and (C^2_L/CD)c are increased by 10.5% and 22.8%, respectively. Overall, enlarging the end-plate diameter significantly enhances the aerodynamic performance of CFJ wings. This study indicated that CFJ wings with circular end-plates significantly enhances aerodynamic efficiency, offering a robust technique for increasing aerodynamic efficiency with a high cruise lift coefficient.