Drag reduction of wing-in-ground craft by using micro vortex generator

Wing-In-Ground (WIG) craft has become one of the latest technologies in the marine vehicle sector. The current design of the hull-fuselage can cause flow separation and increase in drag hence flow control devices can be used to improve flow separation phenomenon on the hull-fuselage of the WIG craft. The objective of this study is to investigate the effect of micro vortex generator (MVG) on the drag
performance of WIG craft through wind tunnel experiments. This experimental study has gone through subsonic wind tunnel testing in UPNM. Different configurations on height, angle, and spacing of the flow control device helped in obtaining minimum Cd. The height was setup from 0.5δ to δ based on boundary layer thickness of the model. The angle of the MVG tested such as 10°, 16° and 23° has shown a significant effect on drag reduction. Nevertheless, merging the previous configuration with MVG spacing 4.1δ, 4.8δ and 5.4δ, this flow control device was proven to reduce Cd for up to 25% from the baseline model. This indicates that flow control device is helpful in improving the drag performance of WIG craft.