Influence of continuous trailing-edge variable camber wing on aerodynamic characteristics of airliner

The continuous trailing-edge variable camber wing has a potential in improving the aerodynamic characteristics of the airliner, and is widely concerned recently. Based on the optimization design system constructed in this paper, the influence of continuous trailing-edge variable camber wing on the aerodynamic characteristics of the airliner wing-body configuration is presented. First, the free form deformation (FFD) technique is used to accomplish the parameterization of the continuous trailing-edge variable camber wing. Then, based on the RANS equation solver, the trailing-edge variable camber wing optimizations are carried out to reduce aerodynamic drag of the wing-body configuration around the design lift coefficients. Finally, the difference of the optimization design results by considering the trailing-edge deflection of the outboard wing and the whole wing is explored. The optimization results show that when the lift coefficient is lower than the design lift coefficient and only the deflection of outboard wing trailing-edge is considered, the favorable deflection direction to reduce the induced drag and wave drag is opposite, and it is difficult to reduce them simultaneously; when the deflection of inboard wing is also considered, the drag reduction quantity is much larger than that of the former optimization; when the lift coefficient exceeds the design lift coefficient, the trailing-edge deflection of both the outboard wing and the whole wing can reduce the wave drag and induced drag simultaneously, and their drag reduction quantity is almost the same.