Iranian Journal of Science and Technology, Transactions of Mechanical Engineering (2022) 46:783–792

https://doi.org/10.1007/s40997-021-00455-z

RESEARCH PAPER

Experimental Study on the Effect of Tubercle on Aerodynamic

Characteristics of Swept Wings at low Reynolds Number
Jeena Joseph1 · A. Sathyabhama1

Received: 23 November 2020 / Accepted: 13 September 2021 / Published online: 7 October 2021
© Shiraz University 2021

Abstract
Inspired from the Humpback whale flipper, airfoils and wings incorporated with sinusoidal leading edge are much studied
for their improved aerodynamic characteristics like delayed stall and higher lift in post-stall region. In this work, the perfor-
mance of different swept wings equipped with leading edge tubercles is studied by comparing with their baseline models at
a low Reynolds number of 100,000. Tubercles on swept wings can either be placed normal to leading edge or parallel to flow
direction. First part of the study involves selecting the swept wing configuration which has superior aerodynamic performance
from the two possible configurations based on the tubercle alignment on it. Wind tunnel experiment is conducted for the
above-mentioned configuration of tubercles on different swept wings as well as unswept wing and compared to corresponding
baseline wings. The orientation of tubercle relative to flow has a significance in aerodynamic performance. Aerodynamic
efficiency is maximum when the tubercles are aligned with the flow direction. It is seen that tubercles on high swept wing
are not as effective as it is on a unswept wing. On unswept and low swept, wing tubercles improve the stall characteristics by
preventing abrupt stall and maintaining high lift in post-stall regime. The lift-to-drag ratio for these wings is improved when
tubercles are introduced. However, for high swept, wing tubercles do not change the aerodynamic characteristics significantly.

Keywords Tubercle orientation · Swept wings · Aerodynamic efficiency · Lift-to-drag ratio

List of Symbols 1 Introduction

A Amplitude of tubercle
CD Coefficient of drag In our daily life, we come across many devices and machines
CLmax Maximum coefficient of lift inspired from nature. Sometimes the design inspiration from
CDi Coefficient of induced drag nature improves the functionality and efficiency of an exist-
c Mean chord ing design as in the case of popular Shinkasen bullet train in
D Drag force Japan (Kapsali 2016; DeYoung and Hobbs 2009), inspired
L Lift force from kingfisher. Similarly, the whole concept of flying and
(L∕D)max Maximum lift-to-drag ratio thereafter the design of airplanes were inspired from birds.
S Span of wing Many parts on aircraft also draw their design inspiration
W Wavelength of tubercle from nature as in the case of raindrop shape of fuselage
Re Reynolds number offering minimum resistance to air. Riblets on aircraft wing,
𝛼 Angle of attack inspired from shark skin, are known for its advantage in
𝛼stall Stall angle drag reduction, (Bechert et al. 2000; Bhushan 2012). Other
𝛽 Angle between flow direction and direction of nature-inspired adaptations include trailing edge flaps
tubercle derived from bird feathers, winglets from eagle and slots
𝜆 Swept angle of wing from the spit tail of falcon. In this study, we analyze the fea-
sibility of such a device design called leading edge tubercle
inspired from the pectoral flipper of Humpback whale on
* Jeena Joseph
[email protected] aircraft wing. Unswept rectangular and swept are the most
common planform wings in aviation, and here, we try to
1
Department of Mechanical Engineering, National study the effect of Humpback whale inspired tubercles on
Institute of Technology Karnataka Surathkal, Surathkal, these two types of wings.
Karnataka 575 025, India

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784 Iranian Journal of Science and Technology, Transactions of Mechanical Engineering (2022) 46:783–792

Flippers of humpback are equipped with leading edge produced in the post-stall. It was also seen that there exists
protrusions called tubercles and are known to function as a critical Reynolds number for any tubercle geometry,
lift improvement devices that help the huge whales to take above which the lift-to-drag decreases (Weber et al. 2010).
tight turns while preying (Edel and Winn 1978). It has been Further, there were many studies on the effect of tubercle
reported that tubercles keep the flow attached over the flip- configuration on aerodynamic performance by varying
per over a larger range of angle of attack, and thus, stall the tubercle wavelength and amplitude. It was seen that
is delayed (Fish and Battle 1995), and the maximum lift maximum lift coefficient and stall delay were achieved by
coefficient is increased with nominal increase in drag (Mik- tubercles with smaller amplitude (Stein and Murray 2005;
losovic et al. 2004). These aerodynamic improvements are Hansen et al. 2011). However, softer stall was achieved
brought about by the tubercle, as they are believed to create by higher amplitude tubercles. It could also be seen that
streamwise vortices which in turn re-energizes the bound- smaller wavelength aided in enhancing the maximum lift
ary layer through enhanced momentum exchange (Edel and coefficient and stall angle and in reducing drag (Stein and
Winn 1978; Fish and Battle 1995). Some studies suggest the Murray 2005).
working mechanism of tubercle to be similar as vortex gen- Numerical studies have revealed much about the pat-
erating devices like small delta wings and strakes (Fish et al. tern and physics of the flow caused by tubercles. The flow
2008). Another possible mechanism is the elimination of accelerates in the trough region which can be seen from the
span wise stall progression by compartmentalizing the flow streamlines (Fish and Battle 1995; Watts and Fish 2006). It
(Fish et al. 2008). Several devices with tubercles like indus- can also be seen that the pressure behind troughs is lower
trial fans, surf board and wind turbines are commercially than that behind the peaks (Watts and Fish 2006). Numeri-
available now, and the potential application of tubercles cal study using unsteady RANS (Reynolds Averaged Navier
could include MAVs, short take-off and landing aircrafts, Stokes) model indicated formation of streamwise vortices
helicopter rotor blades, hydroplanes and blades various fluid between the tubercles behind the troughs (Fish and Lauder
handling devices like compressors and turbines, spoilers on 2006). Tubercled models experienced higher vorticity down-
racing cars and much more . stream and lesser tip vortex when compared to a baseline
An inviscid numerical model for an airfoil similar to model for a given angle of attack (Pedro and Kobayashi
NACA 634-021 airfoil, (Humpback whale flippers closely 2008). The streamwise vortices formation was said to be
resemble the 21% thick, low drag NACA 634-021 wing in a consequence of the span wise flow caused due the sweep
cross section (Fish and Battle 1995)) reported 4.8 % increase angle effect created by tubercle at the leading edge (Custodio
in CLmax , 10.9% reduction in coefficient of induced drag CDi 2007).
and 17.5 % hike in L/D at angle of attack (𝛼 ) of 10◦ (Watts Most of these earlier experimental and numerical studies
et al. 2001). Experimental study on Humpback whale flipper have been associated with the aerodynamic performances
with tubercle indicated a 40 % increase in stall angle (𝛼stall ) and flow pattern on infinite and finite rectangular wings .
compared to the flipper without tubercles (Miklosovic et al. There has been only limited study on the effect of tuber-
2004). The total drag in post-stall region for tubercled flipper cles on swept wings. A few studies on tapered swept back
was lesser than the flipper without tubercle and also had a wings observed that lift and drag decreased when tubercles
6% increase in CLmax. were introduced on tapered swept wing (Bolzon et al. 2014,
However, it was reported that tubercles on airfoil 2017). Wake survey on such wings revealed the sweeping of
reduced lift and increased drag (Stein and Murray 2005) for tubercled wings can lead to non-uniformity in the strength
0 ≤ 𝛼 ≤ 12 at Re = 250, 000 . From a comparison between of vortices. It shall be noted that the flow control perfor-
tubercles and conventional vortex generator, it was also mance and aerodynamic efficiency could vary with airfoil
found that tubercle does not act upon the flow in a man- profiles, Reynolds number, tubercle geometries and even the
ner similar as vortex generators (Stein and Murray 2005). wing planform (Wei et al. 2017). To fully exploit any pos-
It was identified that tubercles are disadvantageous in sible benefits of tubercles, it is required to study their effects
pre-stall region for NACA 63-021 as it decreased lift and across the laminar and turbulent Reynolds number range.
increased drag compared to airfoil without tubercle (Johari However, this study is restricted to laminar regime with 100
et al. 2007). However, in the post-stall region, the tubercled 000 Reynolds due to the limitations of the low speed test
version of airfoil attained as high as 50 % higher lift than facility and small-scale wing models. Nevertheless, this
airfoil without tubercles (Johari et al. 2007). Thus, it can study would give an insight to the possibility of applications
be concluded that tubercles could be used as active control of tubercle technology in aviation applications like in MAVs,
mechanism that is used only in the stall situation (Watts and small UAVs(Unmanned Aerial Vehicle), human-powered
Fish 2006). air crafts and ultralight air-crafts and other applications like
In a study conducted on rudder with tubercle, it was tidal wave turbine, wind turbine, etc., where the associated
seen that stall was more gradual, and higher lift was Reynolds number is generally as low as it is studied here.

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Iranian Journal of Science and Technology, Transactions of Mechanical Engineering (2022) 46:783–792 785

To address the scarcity of information on tubercled swept orientations (Wei et al. 2017), revealed that the wing where
wings, the primary interest of this study would be to obtain tubercles aligned normal to leading edge showed slightly
the aerodynamic characteristics of swept wings incorporated better aerodynamic efficiency in terms of lift-to-drag ratio
with tubercles. A preliminary study shall be done on the at smaller angles of attack and deteriorated performance at
effect of tubercle alignment with respect to the flow on swept higher angles. Authors feel that the topic of tubercle orien-
wings. The superior performing configuration of tubercle tation on swept wings itself is a topic for detailed research
alignment shall be used in the further study. For the pre- involving many swept wings. However, due to financial con-
liminary study, a set of 30◦ swept tubercle, with two distinct straints, it was decided a preliminary study using one set of
tubercle alignments, are used. The particular orientation of swept wings be carried out prior to studying the effects of
tubercle that gave better aerodynamic performance is incor- tubercle on swept wings. For the tubercle orientation study,
porated to 0 ◦ , 10◦ , 20◦ and 30◦ swept wings and compared a set of 30◦ swept wings are used as shown in Fig. 1. The
with their respective baselines to find the effect of tubercles configuration with better aerodynamic performance based
on various swept wings. on the lift-to-drag ratio shall be used on other swept wings
involved in this study.
The study on the effect of tubercle involves a pair of
2 Experimental Setup wings at 0 ◦ , 10◦ , 20◦ and 30◦ . One wing in the set is a base-
line, while the other has configuration A tubercles incorpo-
2.1 Wing Models rated. The schematic of the wings is shown in Fig. 2. The
detailed geometrical parameters are listed in Table 1. The
Unlike for unswept wings, tubercles on swept wing can wings had a chord length of 0.15 m and span of 0.45 m giv-
be oriented either along the streamwise direction or per- ing wing area of 0.0675 m 2 and a low aspect ratio of 3. The
pendicular to the leading edge. A study on swept tapered wing has a NACA 0021 section and taper ratio of 1, with
wing with SD7032 airfoil profile, using both these tubercle no peculiar wing tips. The tubercle has an amplitude and

Fig. 1  Schematic of 30◦ swept

wings used in the tubercle ori-
entation study (i) Configuration
A (30 Tubercle-A) (ii) Configu-
ration B(30 Tubercle-B)

Table 1  Details of geometrical Sl.No Label 𝜆, A, W, c, S 𝛽

parameters of the wings
– – (deg) (mm) (mm) (mm) (mm) (deg)

i 0 Baseline 0◦ N/A N/A 150 450 N/A

ii 0 Tubercle 0◦ 9(0.06c) 31(.21c) 150 450 0◦
iii 10 Baseline 10◦ N/A N/A 150 450 N/A
iv 10 Tubercle 10 ◦
9(0.06c) 31(.21c) 150 450 0◦
v 20 Baseline 20 ◦
N/A N/A 150 450 N/A
vi 20 Tubercle 20◦ 9(0.06c) 31(.21c) 150 450 0◦
vii 30 Baseline 30 ◦
N/A N/A 150 450 N/A
viii 30 Tubercle-A 30 ◦
9(0.06c) 31(.21c) 150 450 0◦
ix 30 Tubercle-B 30 ◦
9(0.06c) 31(.21c) 150 450 30◦

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786 Iranian Journal of Science and Technology, Transactions of Mechanical Engineering (2022) 46:783–792

Fig. 3  Test section of wind tunnel with wing mounted inside and
force balance underneath

11kW driving motor. The tunnel has a test section area of 1

m × 1 m and length of 2 m and turbulent intensity of 0.15%
at the velocity of 10 m/s. Figure 3 shows the test section of
Fig. 2  Tubercle models (on left) and baseline models (on right) used
in the experiment.(From top to bottom are 0 ◦ , 10◦ , 20◦ and 30◦)
the tunnel with the model wing mounted inside and the force
balance fitted underneath.

wavelength of 6 % and 21 % of the chord length, respec- 2.3 Force Measurement and Uncertainty
tively. The amplitude and wavelength play a significant role
in the effect of tubercles, and therefore, the particular ampli- The experiment involved obtaining the lift and drag coeffi-
tude and wavelength for the tubercles in this study were cho- cients with varying angle of attack from the corresponding
sen as it was known to give maximum aerodynamic perfor- lift and drag forces acting on the model for a velocity of 10
mance (Hansen et al. 2011). These values of amplitude and m/s (corresponding to Re = 100, 000 based on chord length).
wavelength were also close to data taken from actual flipper To obtain these aerodynamic forces, the wing models were
of Humpback whale. fitted on a force balance which was in turn mounted below
The wings were modeled in “SolidWorks.” The 0 Base- the test section of the wind tunnel. Each wing model is tested
line was modeled by extruding a NACA 0021 airfoil along a in a range of angle of attack varying from −2◦ to 26◦ for
unswept line. The swept baselines (10 Baseline, 20 Baseline every alternate angle. The force balance is equipped with
and 30 Baseline) are modeled by sweeping the same airfoil strain gauges that send electronic signals to the external elec-
profile along 10◦ , 20◦ and 30◦ inclined line, respectively. For tronic device where signal conditioning is done giving the
the 0 Tubercle model, the airfoil profile followed a sinusoi- lift and drag value from which corresponding coefficients are
dal guide curve path. The sweep path for first configuration calculated. A sampling period of 1 second was chosen and
of swept wing with tubercle (30 Tubercle-A) was a sinu- a minimum of 150 samples were collected at each angle of
soidal wave superimposed on a line inclined at 30 degrees attack and a time-averaged lift and drag are recorded. Each
and similarly for other swept tubercle models. The second wing was tested four times in the above-mentioned range
configuration of swept tubercle wing (30 Tubercle-B) is cre- of angle of attack to ensure repeatability, and the averages
ated by rotating a unswept tubercle wing to 30 degrees. The are documented. The tunnel blockage ratio at the maximum
models were CNC machined from hylam wood and sand angle of 26◦ was approximately 3 %, and therefore, such
to obtain smooth surface and had a profile accuracy of 0.2 effects are neglected (West and Apelt 1982). After fixing
mm. The wooden models used in the experiment are shown the wing model to the external balance and setting to zero
in Fig. 2. angle of attack, there was misalignment between chord line
of airfoil and balance axis. The airfoil being symmetric, the
2.2 Wind Tunnel zero correction was, however, made easily by plotting the
lift and drag coefficients values over negative and positive
The experiments were conducted in the open circuit low angles of attack. Upon plotting these values with respect
subsonic wind tunnel at National Institute of Technology- to angle of attack (on x-axis), correction was made such
Karnataka. The tunnel can achieve an uniform free stream that drag coefficient curve becomes symmetric about the
velocity ranging from 7 to 30 m/s. The velocity of wind flow y-axis that passes through the actual zero-degree angle and
in the tunnel can be changed by changing the RPM of the lift coefficient is zero.

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Iranian Journal of Science and Technology, Transactions of Mechanical Engineering (2022) 46:783–792 787

Significant sources of error were the uncertainties in

angle of attack, free stream velocity and force measurement.
The angular uncertainty in the pitching scale was estimated
to be ±0.5 degree. Uncertainty in force measurement was
calculated by loading the force balance with different known
weights. The balance used in force measurement has an
uncertainty of 1.5 N. The error due to machining process
resulted in a difference of ±0.2 mm in the chord and span of
the wing models. The uncertainties in the force coefficient
at a 95% confidence interval were determined using methods
outlined by Coleman and Steel (Coleman and Steele 1995).
The percentage error in lift coefficient is 7.9%, 2.09%, 1.9%
and 1.8% at angle of attack of 6 ◦ , 14◦ , 20◦ and 24◦ , respec-
tively. The percentage error in drag coefficient is 18%, 9 %,
3% and 2.1% for the same angles of attack. Thus, the trend
Fig. 5  Lift-to-drag ratio for baseline swept wings
is that error percentage is decreasing with increasing loads.
Maximum uncertainties for lift and drag occur at low angles
of attack where the forces are very low . The error bars for It is seen that each wing forms a bell-shaped curve,
lift and drag coefficients with increasing AOA for baseline among which the highest amplitude, is for the unswept
unswept wing are depicted in Fig. 4a, b, respectively. wing. As the sweep of the wing increases, amplitude of the
corresponding curve goes on decreasing. When the wing is
swept at 30 degree the maximum lift-to-drag ratio is less
3 Results and Discussion than half of that was for unswept wing. The reducing nature
of L/D curve is affected by the decrease in lift and increase
3.1 Effect of Sweep on Wings in drag for the swept wings. As the sweep increases the
slope of the lift curve as well as the maximum lift coeffi-
It seems beneficial to briefly understand how various swept cient goes on reducing. There is also substantial increase in
wings differ from that of unswept or unswept wings in their the drag, mostly induced drag due to the increase in sweep
aerodynamic performance at low Reynolds number. Though of the wing. Thus, one can conclude that at low Reynolds
the lift and drag curves are not presented here, the lift-to- number, unswept wing and low swept wings are more aero-
drag ratio, an indicator of aerodynamic efficiency (Anderson dynamically efficient than the high swept ones. However,
1991), is depicted in Fig. 5. for unswept wing L/D drops from 22 at 12◦ to 4 at 18◦ ,

(a) Lift coefficient (b) Drag coefficient

Fig. 4  Force coefficients of unswept baseline wings with error bars at 𝛼 = 6,14,20 and 24 deg

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788 Iranian Journal of Science and Technology, Transactions of Mechanical Engineering (2022) 46:783–792

whereas for a high swept wing, it is 10 and 5, respectively. It Figure 7 depicts the lift characteristics of 0 ◦ , 10◦ , 20◦
is thereby seen that high swept wings have relatively smaller and 30◦ wings. From the lift characteristic of unswept wings
changes in the post-stall L/D compared to the abrupt fall for shown in Fig. 7a, it is seen that both the baseline wing and
low swept wings. tubercle wing have same lift characteristics in the pre-stall
region. Both the 0 ◦ swept wings stall at 16◦ . However, the
3.2 Effect of Airfoil/Tubercle Alignment CLmax for baseline wing is 0.74 and for tubercle 0.64 which is
approximately 12% less than of the baseline. The significant
The main objective of this study is to identify the effect of effect of tubercle is visible in the post-stall region. When the
tubercles on low aspect ratio swept wings at low Reynolds baseline abruptly stalls dropping CL to 0.430 the tubercle
number. Since tubercle on swept wing could possibly have wing presents a smooth stall characteristic.
two orientations as explained before it is necessary to choose Similar trend is observed for 10◦ and 20◦ swept wings.
the configuration with better aerodynamic performance. The When 10◦ baseline has a CLmax of 0.702 and falls abruptly
angle formed by the tubercle with incoming flow is same to 0.446 at stall the tubercled variant with CLmax of 0.58978
as the swept angle. Therefore, the most swept wing in the smoothly falls to 0.560. For 20◦ baseline and tubercle wings,
group (30◦ wings) was chosen for this part of the study to the CLmax is 0.66 and 0.58, respectively, while the post-stall
clearly differentiate the tubercle orientation and its effect. CL for these wings are 0.560 and .567. However, there is a
The L/D curve for 30◦ wings with two different orientations prominent difference for 30◦ wings. CLmax for baseline wing
of tubercles is shown in Fig. 6. is 0.61 and stalls smoothly to a CL of 0.60 unlike all the other
It can be seen that the configuration-B, where the tuber- baseline models. The 30 ◦ tubercle model has CLmax of 0.57
cles are arranged normal to the leading edge, has an inferior which also smoothly decreases to 0.56 at stall.
aerodynamic efficiency than configuration A in the pre- The unswept tubercle wing has an average 27.4% hike in
stall region and a slightly higher efficiency in the post-stall CL in the post-stall region compared to its baseline model.
region. From the limited experiments conducted, it is seen However, this percentage hike in the post-stall region for
that for low Reynolds number and low aspect ratio wings, swept wings goes on decreasing with increase in sweep.
configuration A performs better than B, and hence, this con- Tubercle variant for 10◦ swept wing is average of 23.8%
figuration of tubercles would be used on all swept wings in greater than its baseline, while for 20◦ , the increment is
the further study. 30 Tubercle-A will now be named as 30 only 12.9%. As the sweep further increases to 30◦ , the lift
Tuercle as this will be the only configuration used further. coefficient of tubercled wing is just 2.9% on average higher
than the corresponding baseline. It is also seen that baseline
3.3 Effect of Tubercles on Swept Wings and tubercle wing of each swept wing stalls at 16◦ . Authors
are of the opinion that since the experimental studies were
As we have now understood that the tubercles aligned along conducted for low Reynolds number had with force measure-
the airflow are more beneficial than the one aligned normal ments be recorded with AOA incremental value of 0.5 ◦ , it
to leading edge, we shall now analyze the effect of such would have been be possible to see differences in stall angle
tubercles on wings swept at different angles comparing with for the wings, though its not predominant.
corresponding baselines. The drag characteristics of the wings are depicted in
Fig. 8. It is seen that both tubercle and baseline variants of
each swept wing produce almost same drag in the prestall
region. However, tubercled wing configuration of each of the
swept wing pair has a decreased drag than its correspond-
ing baseline. The tubercled variant of 0 ◦ , 10◦ , 20◦ and 30◦
shows an average of 19.62%, 21.11%, 18.62% and 10.87%
reduction in drag in the post-stall region, respectively. How-
ever, at very high angle of attack, beyond 24◦ tubercle wings
produced drag comparable or even slightly higher than the
baselines.
A mere comparison of lift and drag may not help in fully
understanding the potential benefits of tubercled wings fully.
The lift-to-drag ratio for the wingspan acts as an indica-
tor of aerodynamic efficiency and provides clear and easy
understanding on the feasibility of using tubercled wings
Fig. 6  Lift-to-drag curve for swept wings with different tubercle ori- in various applications. Figure 9 shows the L/D curve with
entations respect to AOA for the different wings used in the study. The

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Iranian Journal of Science and Technology, Transactions of Mechanical Engineering (2022) 46:783–792 789

(a) 0 degree wings (b) 10 degree wings

(c) 20 degree wings (d) 30 degree wings

Fig. 7  Lift characteristics of wings used in the study

unswept tubercle wing has a 20 % increase in (L∕D)max when the spanwise flow is also greater. This could be the reason
compared to its base line. For 10◦ and 20◦ wings, the hike for decrease in aerodynamic efficiency for tubercle wing
in (L∕D)max for the tubercled variant is 17.6% and 11.7%, with increase in swept angle.
respectively. However, for 30◦ , the increment is a mere 3.8%.
It can clearly be seen that at very high swept angle of 30◦ ,
tubercles do not appear to be beneficial compared to its base- 4 Conclusion
line. From earlier works done on tubercles, it was suggested
that the tubercles created counter-rotating vortices that re- The effect of tubercle on the aerodynamic characteristics
energized the boundary flow they delaying flow separation of swept wings at a low Reynolds number of 100,000 is
and thereby improving aerodynamic characteristics. The studied experimentally by comparing them with baseline.
inefficiency of high swept tubercle wing could be explained Initially, an attempt is made to identify the high aerody-
in terms of the spanwise flow component over the wing. The namic configuration of swept tubercle wing from the two
counter-rotating vortices created by the tubercles could lose possible configurations based on the alignment of tuber-
it strength and eventually disintegrate as the spanwise flow cles relative to the flow direction. It is seen from that
washes over it. It is known that as the swept angle increases, the positioning of tubercles relative to flow direction on

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790 Iranian Journal of Science and Technology, Transactions of Mechanical Engineering (2022) 46:783–792

(a) 0 degree wings (b) 10 degree wings

(c) 20 degree wings (d) 30 degree wings

Fig. 8  Drag characteristics of wings used in the study

a swept wing is important. Aligning the tubercles along wing almost coincides suggesting them to have the same
the flow direction is advantageous as this configuration aerodynamic efficiency. Thus, it can be concluded that
gives maximum lift-to-drag ratio. Later part of the work tubercles on swept wing are not as effective as it is on a
involves comparing the effect of tubercle on unswept wing unswept wing. Inclusion of tubercles on high swept wing,
and swept wing taking into consideration only the high- however, helps in maintaining lift close to maximum lift
performance configuration of swept tubercle wing. It is for a higher range of angle of attack.
seen that incorporating tubercles on unswept wing is ben- From this study, it can be concluded that the effect of
eficial as it alleviates the abrupt stall and maintains high tubercle on swept wings is not as predominant as it is on
post-stall lift. Same effect is seen on low swept wings also. unswept wing. At low Reynolds number, tubercles can be
However, the same is not the case for high swept wings. beneficial on low swept wings; however, on high swept
Sweeping a normal wing to a high angle itself removes the wings, they are of no much benefits in terms of lift and drag
abrupt stall which is otherwise seen on a unswept wing. characteristics. It has to be noted that the results discussed in
A further incorporation of tubercle on swept wing only this study are limited to low Reynolds number in the range
smooth out stall characteristics in a limited way. The lift- 105. Since high swept wings are prominently used in high
to-drag ratio for tubercled and non-tubercled high swept Reynolds number and Mach number applications, further

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Iranian Journal of Science and Technology, Transactions of Mechanical Engineering (2022) 46:783–792 791

(a) 20 degree wings (b) 30 degree wings

(c) 20 degree wings (d) 30 degree wings

Fig. 9  Lift-to-drag curves of wings used in the study

studies should be conducted to fully understand the feasibil- Bhushan B (2012) Shark skin surface for fluid-drag reduction in
ity of using tubercles in such application. turbulent flow. In Biomimetics. Springer, pp 227–265
Bolzon M, Kelso R, Arjomandi M (2014) The effects of tubercles on
swept wing performance at low angles of attack. In Proceedings
Acknowledgements Authors would like to acknowledge the finan- of the 19th Australasian fluid mechanics conference, pp 8–11.
cial support extended by the Science & Engineering Research Board Australasian Fluid Mechanics Soc., Melbourne, Australia
(SERB), India (Sanction order: EMR/2015/000879) to carry out this Bolzon MD, Kelso RM, Arjomandi M (2017) Force measurements
research work. and wake surveys of a swept tubercled wing. J Aerospace Eng
30(3):04016085
Coleman HW, Steele WG (1995) Engineering application of experi-
mental uncertainty analysis. AIAA J 33(10):1888–1896
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