Delta Wing-Fuselage Interactions - Experimental Study

Experiments were conducted on thin delta wings to investigate, for subsonic flow, the effect of both privileged apex angle values and the wing-fuselage interactions on the aerodynamic characteristics, i.e. the distribution of the defect pressure on the extrados, the drag and the lift coefficients. For this purpose, several delta wing models of various apex angle (β = 75, 80 and 85°) were realized and tested without and with fuselages of cylindrical form, with diameters of 20 and 30 mm, downstream the apex and appropriately disposed on the extrados. The impact of the apex angle as well as the interaction on the defect pressure were specially considered along the apex vortices where the pressure defect is usually maximum. The above mentioned effects were investigated via the variations of the mean velocity in the wind tunnel and the incidence (attack) angle.