Design of a New Aircraft Wing Inspired by the Magnificent Frigate Bird

Abstract

The aircraft wing design plays a compelling role on the overall aircraft performance. The contemporary society has come to integrate inspirations time-tested by nature, within the modern technological innovations. This paper fixates upon the field of biomimetics, experimenting on the wing planform of a Magnificent Frigate bird that can be embodied into a conceptual aircraft wing. This specific seabird was chosen as studies confirm that it has the lowest wing loading and drag coefficient among all birds. The conceptual wing this research is based upon was designed using SOLIDWORKS software, incorporating a NACA 2412 aerofoil in order to compare the end results with the wing of a conventional aircraft. Simulations were conducted for a range of angles of attack, at different Reynold’s numbers using a computational simulation software, ANSYS® 18.1, to verify whether the design offers improved aerodynamic properties, for an aircraft wing. Two turbulence models were used, namely, Spalart-Allmaras and K-epsilon. The results obtained for both cases were compared, and it was seen that improved performance resulted when using the with K-epsilon turbulence model.