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  Enabling Technologies - Drag Reduction

Drag Reduction Technologies

Drag reduction is vital to achieving speed and fuel efficiency. The CAFE 400 races of the 1980's inspired many innovations in drag reduction that are covered in the CAFE 400 reports under "Research & Publications" on this website. There are a great number of resources on this topic and we here present some of our favorites. The designer must attend to issues of laminar flow, cooling drag, interference drag, leakage drag, induced drag, wetted area and parasite drag. As more papers on this topic become available to us, we shall post them.

Drag Reduction

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# Title Author Year Description Size
1 Fluid Mechanics, Drag Reduction and Advanced Configuration Aeronautics Dennis M. Bushnell 2000 Open thermodynamics and their potential to greatly reduce drag. Great bibliography includes exciting AIAA papers by Goldschmied on negative drag. 292KB
2 An Approach to Turbulent Incompressible Separation under Adverse Pressure Gradients Fabio R. Goldschmied 1964 Theory and prediction of skin-friction drag as a function of Reynolds number 1 MB
3 An Approach to Turbulent Incompressible Separation and the Determination of Skin-Friction Under Adverse Pressure Gradients Fabio R. Goldschmied 1964 More Theory and prediction of skin-friction drag as a function of Reynolds number 652 KB
4 Integrated Hull Design, Boundary-Layer Control, and Propulsion of Sub-merged Bodies F.R. Goldschmied 1966 Up to 50% reduction in power required for low-drag hulls is described in detail 1.4 MB
5 Shaping of Axisymmetric Bodies for Minimum Drag In Incompressible Flow Jerome S. Parsons
Raymond E. Goodson and
Fabio R. Goldschmied
1973 Optimization of low drag hulls akin to the Dolphin experimental body shows major drag reductions 1.1 MB
6 Comment on LTA Aerodynamic Data Revisited F.R. Goldschmied 1977 1 page presentation on major drag reduction method 80 KB
7 Aerodynamic Hull Design for HASPA LTA Optimization Fabio R. Goldschmied 1978 Airship shape optimization by afterbody shape 528 KB
8 Wind Tunnel Demonstration of an Optimized LTA System with 65% Power Reduction and Neutral Static Stability Fabio R. Goldschmied 1983 Major wake drag reduction by aft suction slot 1.3 MB
9 Jet-Propulsion of Subsonic Bodies with Jet Total-Head Equal to Free Stream's F.R. Goldschmied 1983 Major wake drag reduction on axisymmetric bodies with aft co-axial jet exit and rear suction slot 564 KB
10 On the Aerodynamic Optimization of Mini-RPV and Small GA Aircraft F.R. Goldschmied 1984 Application of Goldschmied suction slot body to GA fuselage design—very promising drag reduction 768 KB
11 Aerodynamic Design of Low-Speed Aircraft With a NASA Fuselage/Wake Propeller Configuration F.R. Goldschmied et al 1986 Major drag reduction for GA aircraft of 140-180 mph range 968 KB
12 Fuselage Self-Propulsion by Static-Pressure Thrust: Wind-Tunnel Verification F.R. Goldschmied 1987 Boundary layer control by Goldschmied body shape yields major drag reduction 1.1 MB
13 On a Least-Energy Hypothesis for the Wake of Axisymmetric Bodies with Turbulent Separation: Pressure-Distribution Prediction Fabio R. Goldschmied 1988 Naval Airship “Akron” studied as a Dolphin shape 1.5 MB
14 Synergistic Airframe-Propulsion Interactions and Integrations Steven F.
Yaros et al
1998 A white paper of 124 pages that integrates many high-
tech aerodynamic concepts. Includes excellent illustrations.
6.6MB
15 Flight Research on Natural Laminar Flow B.J. Holmes and c.p van Dam 1988 Explorations of the drag reducing benefits of NLF on several aircraft; includes the effect of engine noise/vibration on NLF. 7.43MB
16 Natural Laminar Flow Experiments on Modern Airplane Surfaces B.J. Holmes et al 1984 A 144 page landmark paper on the behavior of NLF and the effects of rain on its stability. 10.3MB
17 Low Drag Fuselages Francisco Leme Galvao 1968 A succinct note on low drag bodies of revolution: tuna shapes. 5.2MB
18 Nano-coatings for wetted drag reduction Francisco Leme Galvao 1991 Potential for reduction skin drag using special coatings. 1MB

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