Drag

Induced drag vs. lift

Lift-induced drag (also called induced drag) is drag which occurs as the result of the creation of lift on a three-dimensional lifting body, such as the wing or fuselage of an airplane. Induced drag consists of two primary components, including drag due to the creation of vortices (vortex drag) and the presence of additional viscous drag (lift-induced viscous drag). The vortices in the flow-field, present in the wake of a lifting body, derive from the turbulent mixing of air of varying pressure on the upper and lower surfaces of the body, which is a necessary condition for the creation of lift.

With other parameters remaining the same, as the lift generated by a body increases, so does the lift-induced drag. For an aircraft in flight, this means that as the angle of attack, and therefore the lift coefficient, increases to the point of stall, so does the lift-induced drag. At the onset of stall, lift is abruptly decreased, as is lift-induced drag, but viscous pressure drag, a component of parasite drag, increases due to the formation of turbulent unattached flow on the surface of the body. With other parameters remaining the same, induced drag increases as the angle of attack increases.