Experimental studies of viscous regions near streamlined wing tips

Extract

Wing-tip vortices are of considerable practical importance, primarily because of the associated induced drag. A number of investigations have been made in the past into the development of vortices trailing behind wings, but little attention has been given to the mechanism of generation of such vortices. In the region of a wing-tip the boundary layers, which are usually turbulent at full-scale, separate from the wing surface in a rather complex manner to form a vortex sheet which rolls up into the tip vortex. Although the gross effects of the tip vortex can be predicted by inviscid theory, a detailed understanding of the behaviour of the viscous layers around wing-tips could lead to better optimisation of their design.