A Hypothesis in Friction Mitigation

    During the operation of an airfoil, it can be observed that air flowing around the wing has an initial point where it is stopped at the leading edge, this is defined as the stagnation point (Pilot's Handbook of Aeronautical Knowledge-Chapter 4: Principles of Flight, p 8). The idea is to mitigate this stagnation point, thus reducing or erasing the friction that the air molecules can cause on the leading edge of the wing.

                                                        How is the friction caused?

    Friction is caused when two molecules of mass attempt to move across eachother, (Pilot's Handbook of Aeronautical Knowledge-Chapter 4: Principles of Flight, p 2) while air has an incredibly small mass, it still has mass which will attempt to stop and obtain a resting point. This mass attempting to stop and become at rest, acts directly against the leading edge of the wing, which is moving through it, thus causing a negative force against the forward motion of the wing at the thickest part of the wing.


How can it be mitigated?

    This can be potentially mitigated by design of perforations in the leading edge of the wing which exit near the trailing edge of the wing. The Hypothesis is that these perforations stop any of the air that begins to build on the leading edge creating the stagnation point. As there are fewer molecules built up at the stagnation point there are fewer molecules creating friction on the leading edge. These perforations should be built closely to the fuselage at the largest point of the wing so as to maintain the structural integrity of the wing while benefitting its friction mitigation to the utmost. To further improve this design the inside of the perforation could have wing shaped vents which may assist in the creation of lift inside the wing and make up for any of the lost power that is taken out of the wing itself due to the perforations existing.













References: Pilot's Handbook of Aeronautical Knowledge-Chapter 4: Principles of Flight


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