Estimated performance of an adaptive trailing-edge device aimed at reducing fuel consumption on a medium-size aircraft

This paper deals with the estimation of the performance of a medium-size aircraft (3-hour flight range) equipped with an adaptive trailing edge device (ATED) that runs span-wise from the wing root in the flap zone and extends chord-wise for a limited percentage of the MAC. Computations are calculated referring to the full wing and do not refer to the complete aircraft configuration. Aerodynamic computations, taking into account ideal shapes, have been performed by using both Euler and Navier- Stokes method in order to extract the wing polars for the reference and the optimal wing, implementing an ATED, deflected upwards and downwards. A comparison of the achieved results is discussed. Considering the shape domain, a suitable interpolation procedure has been set up to obtain the wing polar envelop of the adaptive wing, intended as the set of “best” values, picked by each different polar. At the end, the performances of the complete reference and adaptive wing are computed and compared for a symmetric, centered, leveled and steady cruise flight for a medium size aircraft. A significant fuel burn reduction estimate or, alternatively, an increased range capability is demonstrated, with margins of further improvements. The research leading to these results has gratefully received funding from the European Union Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007- 2013) under Grant Agreement n° 284562.