PPRuNe Forums - View Single Post - Winglets or Wing Fences??
View Single Post
Old 11th November 2008 | 12:03
  #2 (permalink)  
TheShadow
 
Joined: Sep 2000
Posts: 303
Likes: 0
From: England
Stoppers and extractors

Wing fence (normally at half-span) stops spanwise flow of the boundary layer. It's normally situate at half to 2/3rds span and extends no further rearwards than mid-chord. Its spanwise leak-stopper effect on the boundary layer can be reinforced by the endplate effect of a large tip-tank.

By contrast, a winglet extracts energy from the wingtip vortex and part converts the wing-tip's induced drag into a thrustworthy component. The winglet is normally optimized for cruise. In the future we may see variable incidence flow-modifying winglets.
TheShadow is offline  
Reply