Investigation of aerodynamic characteristics of wings having vortex flow using different numerical codes

The aerodynamic characteristics of highly sweptback wings having separation-induced vortex flow were investigated by employing different numerical codes with a view to determining some of the capabilities and limitations of these codes. Flat wings of various configurations-strake wing models, cropped, diamond, arrow and double delta wings, were studied. Cambered and cranked planforms have also been tested. The theoretical results predicted by the codes were compared with the experimental data, wherever possible, and found to agree favorably for most of the configurations investigated. However, large cambered wings could not be successfully modeled by the codes. It appears that the final solution in the free vortex sheet method is affected by the selection of the initial solution. Accumulated span loadings estimated for delta and diamond wings were found to be unusual in comparison with attached flow results in that the slopes of these load curves near the leading edge do not tend to infinity as they do in the case of attached flow.