Wing geometric twist design method based on lifting-line theory

To meet the demand for reducing induced drag in aircraft design, a geometric twist design method for the wing was proposed, based on the research of three-dimensional wing induced drag in lifting-line theory. This method with input parameters of wing total lift, wing planar shape, airfoil aerodynamic characteristics, gives the wing geometric twist result. In low speed situations, a wing with elliptical lift distribution, which had the minimum induced drag, was obtained. Far-field method was used to calculate induced drag, CATIA parametric method was developed for automatic wing generation, script language of ICEM tool was applied for automatic grid generation, symbolic computation capability of MATLAB was carried out to perform the program. This method is suitable for geometric twist design of straight wing in low-speed viscous flow. Examples indicated that the wing designed by this method had an elliptical lift distribution, thereby had lower induced drag.