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Physics of airfoils


Ash
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When my physics teacher was showing the class a website on possible EEIs (extended experimental investigation) that we could do for year 12 I must admit that i was quite board until i saw the one on airfoils, this would just be perfect for me i thought. We havent and won't be given the task sheet for a few weeks now but being in grade 12 i thought it best to get started as soon as possible. i have started planing a wind tunnel to test airfoils in but if anyone knows of any website or books that explain the principles of airfoils or any equations used fo calculating lift and the lift coefficentgraph of wings like the clark y on naca airfoils that would be really helpful and much appreciated.

 

thanks

Ash

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Ash, to keep to the basic principles, the lift equation and calculation of lift coefficient try here:
 
 
 
The NASA website is a fantastic resource. You will see that the equation for lift coefficient is actually the lift equation rearranged.
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A useful graph that is often used is the lift coefficient plotted against angle of attack, here is one for  the Clark-Y, many NACA foils can be found with a little searching on the web(this graph came from Wiki)
 
File:Lift drag graph.JPG
We can see a few interesting things from the graph, like for instance the lift is not zero at zero angle of attack, the Clark-Y is producing some lift already at zero angle of attack. The the lift increases as the angle of attack increases until the angle of attack gets to around 16/17 degrees and then the amount of lift rapidly falls, this is the stall.
 
Don't worry too much about the drag coefficient, but it is useful for design to plot both together on the same graph so one can see how drag is increasing with lift.
 
 
 
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Thanks for the advice guys. Chris just the name of the books is fine and i will see if i can find the at the library. Peter i looked on ABE books anf there are several copies, so i might buy one. Eric there are also five coppies of the book that you have sugested on ABE so i shal buy one of them too. Thanks for the graph Gemma i am going to test the clark y airfoil so it will be usefull.
 
 
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martin simons "model flight" is a general book on model areoplane areo dynamics
martin simons "model aircraft areodynamics, fourth edition" is almost a uni text book with lots of calulations and exstensive diagrams on wing design and profiles, hope this helps tell us how you get on :D  
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