Module-2

Lecture-6

Cruise Flight - Power required, Velocity for

Minimum Power required
 Cruise flight: power required & velocity for
minimum power required
s
2
WV 2W 3 CD
Preq = Treq V = DV = = (1)
CL
CD
SρCL3
1
⇒ Preq ∝ 3
CL2
CD

Thus, following conclusions can be made from the above expression:

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• For power required to be minimum, CL /CD should be maximum.

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• The airplane needs to be flown at CL such that CL /CD is maximum.

• The airplane needs to have sufficient speed so that the lift produced by the aircraft
h i
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at CL corresponding to CL for CL /CD is able to balance the weight of the
max
aircraft.

Now an interesting question arises that how the power required is dependent
on the velocity of an aircraft?

• In order to find an answer to this question let us write Equation 1 in another way

CL2
 
Preq = DV = q̄SV CD = CDo + q̄SV
πARe
  2 

 W 

q̄S
⇒ Preq = CDo + q̄SV

 πARe 

W2
1 1
ρV S
Preq = ρV 3 SCDo + 2 (2)
2 πARe
A typical variation of power required, Preq with velocity is presented in Figure 1.
Referring to the figure it can easily be interpretted that there is a particular speed
at which power required to maintain level flight is minimum.

• For minimum power required,

∂Preq
=0
∂V
∂ 2 Preq
>0
∂V 2
1
 Figure 1: Power available and power required as a function of speed

• So differentiating Equation 1 and equating it to zero, we will get:

W2
∂Preq 3 1
ρV 2 S
= ρV 2 SCDo − 2 =0
∂V 2 πARe
 
W2
3 3 2 4 2
ρ V S
⇒ ρV 2 S CDo − 4 =0
2 πARe
 1 2 
3 2 C
3 L
⇒ ρV S CDo − =0
2 πARe
1
⇒ CDo − CDi = 0
3
where CDi is the induced drag.

• So the aerodynamic condition for minimum power required is

CDi = 3CDo (3)

• Now to calculate CL for minimum power required we know that, induced drag
coefficient,
CDi = KCL2

Using Equation 2 we can write:

KCL2 = 3CDo
r
3CDo
CLminPreq = (4)
K

2
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Once we get CLminPreq , then what is the velocity for cruise at which CL /CD
value is maximum (for minimum power required)?

• As it is well known that, lift needs to balance weight in cruise. So,

1
L = ρV 2 SCL = W
2

• This could also be written as

1
W = ρV 2 SCLminPreq
2
s
2 W


S
⇒V =
ρCLminPreq

• So by using the result obtained in Equation 3 the velocity for minimum power
required can be shown to be:
v
u 2 W

VminPreq =t qS (5)
u
3CDo
ρ K

• Hence once the altitude is decided, the pilot should be instructed to trim the airplane
at VminPreq to satisfy the minimum power required condition.

• This speed at a given altitude could easily be obtained by substituting the values
of W/S, CDo , K in Equation 5.