Author Topic: Design Lift Coefficient for Specific Flight Conditions  (Read 628 times)

Offline Stoney

  • Gold Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 3482
Design Lift Coefficient for Specific Flight Conditions
« on: October 17, 2008, 11:21:21 AM »
Ok,

For my project, I went looking for the design lift coefficients for the two extremes of the flight envelope:

1)  Straight flight at maximum speed; approximately 300 mph.

2)  Sustained 3 G turn decelerating to approx. 200 mph.

Aircraft weight: 725 lbs
Wing Area:  66 ft^2
Dynamic pressure calculated for standard conditions at 6,000 ft.

Using the lift equation:  L = Cl X q X V

Where L = lift (weight), Cl = lift coefficient, q = dynamic pressure, and V = wing area

I came up with .0571 for condition #1 and .3856 for condition #2.  Is there anything I'm not considering for the turn condition, if 3G is sustained, and the speed doesn't drop below 200 mph?
"Can we be incorrect at times, absolutely, but I do believe 15 years of experience does deserve a little more credence and respect than you have given from your very first post."

HiTech

Offline Easyscor

  • Plutonium Member
  • *******
  • Posts: 10891
Re: Design Lift Coefficient for Specific Flight Conditions
« Reply #1 on: October 17, 2008, 04:23:45 PM »
V is usually velocity while A is usually area, although I'm way out of date with modern methods that formula as written is confusing, at least to me.
Easy in-game again.
Since Tour 19 - 2001

Offline Stoney

  • Gold Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 3482
Re: Design Lift Coefficient for Specific Flight Conditions
« Reply #2 on: October 17, 2008, 04:29:29 PM »
Could be my text book then.  He has V (capital) listed as area and A (capital) is typically Aspect ratio in his formulas.

q = 1/2 p v^2 -or- q = 1/2 X p X v^2 ...I can't find a dot or better symbol for multiplication.

Where p = pressure and v (lower case) = velocity (in fps).
« Last Edit: October 17, 2008, 04:32:26 PM by Stoney »
"Can we be incorrect at times, absolutely, but I do believe 15 years of experience does deserve a little more credence and respect than you have given from your very first post."

HiTech

Offline jocko-

  • Copper Member
  • **
  • Posts: 318
Re: Design Lift Coefficient for Specific Flight Conditions
« Reply #3 on: October 18, 2008, 12:10:31 AM »
I thought the formula for Lift was

Lift = CL(1/2 pV^2s)

Where

CL = lift coefficient

P = air density (not really a 'p', actually a greek letter 'rho')

V^2 = velocity squared

s = wing area.

Basically it's rho times the square of the speed times wing area, collectively divided by two and then times the CL.
417jocko
XO
351st FS, 353rd FG
"Slybirds!"

Offline Stoney

  • Gold Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 3482
Re: Design Lift Coefficient for Specific Flight Conditions
« Reply #4 on: October 18, 2008, 12:41:16 AM »
I'm solving for dynamic pressure, then putting it into a simplified equation:

1/2 p v^2 = dynamic pressure, or q

My lift equation is L = Cl q S where L = lift, Cl = lift coefficient, and S = wing area.

*Sorry*  I typo'd on the V = area thing earlier and improperly identified p as pressure vs. density.

Regardless, we're getting away from my original question (now that I have my variables properly labled  :o)
"Can we be incorrect at times, absolutely, but I do believe 15 years of experience does deserve a little more credence and respect than you have given from your very first post."

HiTech

Offline Payed

  • Zinc Member
  • *
  • Posts: 14
Re: Design Lift Coefficient for Specific Flight Conditions
« Reply #5 on: October 18, 2008, 01:14:19 AM »

P = 0.5 # density rho
m = 725.0 # mass lbs
A = 66.0 # wing area ft2
V1 = 300.0 # V condition 1 mph
V2 = 200.0 # V condition 2 mph
g2 = 3.0 # g force in condition 2

# Cl in condition 1
Cl1 = m / ( 0.5 * V1**2 * A * P)

# Cl in condition 2
Cl2 = (m * g2) / ( 0.5 * V2**2 * A * P)

Offline jocko-

  • Copper Member
  • **
  • Posts: 318
Re: Design Lift Coefficient for Specific Flight Conditions
« Reply #6 on: October 18, 2008, 10:00:01 AM »
Ah, ok Stoney, must've missed that last nite.  FSO took a lot out of me ;)
417jocko
XO
351st FS, 353rd FG
"Slybirds!"

Offline Payed

  • Zinc Member
  • *
  • Posts: 14
Re: Design Lift Coefficient for Specific Flight Conditions
« Reply #7 on: October 18, 2008, 02:56:34 PM »
Can't edit the original post.

So, the density at 6000ft is something like a 0.0499 lbs/ft3.



Offline Stoney

  • Gold Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 3482
Re: Design Lift Coefficient for Specific Flight Conditions
« Reply #8 on: October 18, 2008, 04:09:55 PM »
Can't remember the actual value.  I use a dynamic pressure calculator on the Stanford University AeroE website that removes all the decimal-place math.  It also computes mach number, Reynolds number, etc. at the same time and is very useful for some shortcuts in the formulas.
"Can we be incorrect at times, absolutely, but I do believe 15 years of experience does deserve a little more credence and respect than you have given from your very first post."

HiTech

Offline Payed

  • Zinc Member
  • *
  • Posts: 14
Re: Design Lift Coefficient for Specific Flight Conditions
« Reply #9 on: October 18, 2008, 05:03:15 PM »
Stoney

Sorry, I can't follow you...

What VALUE your are actually after?



Offline Stoney

  • Gold Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 3482
Re: Design Lift Coefficient for Specific Flight Conditions
« Reply #10 on: October 18, 2008, 05:05:26 PM »
Well, my original question, which apparently I failed to adequately articulate, was whether or not there were other factors I forgot to consider when determining the lift coefficients for each condition of flight.
"Can we be incorrect at times, absolutely, but I do believe 15 years of experience does deserve a little more credence and respect than you have given from your very first post."

HiTech

Offline Payed

  • Zinc Member
  • *
  • Posts: 14
Re: Design Lift Coefficient for Specific Flight Conditions
« Reply #11 on: October 19, 2008, 01:01:16 AM »

The Cl is basically up to the angle of attack:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coefficient_of_lift

Offline gripen

  • Silver Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 1914
Re: Design Lift Coefficient for Specific Flight Conditions
« Reply #12 on: October 19, 2008, 03:18:43 AM »
It depends what you want; if you are looking for speed, concentrate to the Cl range at max speeds and which is reachable at high speed turns. Only you know what you exactly want

However, I'm wondering a bit your aproach because apparently you have allready selected the wing profile. Normal way is to determine general layout of the plane and assumed Cl range first and choose profile and fine tune the layout based on that.

Offline Casca

  • Nickel Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 353
Re: Design Lift Coefficient for Specific Flight Conditions
« Reply #13 on: October 19, 2008, 09:13:09 AM »
Ok,

For my project, I went looking for the design lift coefficients for the two extremes of the flight envelope:

1)  Straight flight at maximum speed; approximately 300 mph.

2)  Sustained 3 G turn decelerating to approx. 200 mph.

Aircraft weight: 725 lbs
Wing Area:  66 ft^2
Dynamic pressure calculated for standard conditions at 6,000 ft.

Using the lift equation:  L = Cl X q X V

Where L = lift (weight), Cl = lift coefficient, q = dynamic pressure, and V = wing area

I came up with .0571 for condition #1 and .3856 for condition #2.  Is there anything I'm not considering for the turn condition, if 3G is sustained, and the speed doesn't drop below 200 mph?

I came up with the same numbers running them by hand.  Can't think of anything you missed for a simple Cl calculation.
I'm Casca and I approved this message.

Offline Casca

  • Nickel Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 353
Re: Design Lift Coefficient for Specific Flight Conditions
« Reply #14 on: October 19, 2008, 09:17:31 AM »
Can't edit the original post.

So, the density at 6000ft is something like a 0.0499 lbs/ft3.



Mass in most aerodynamics work is expressed in slugs.  In an ICAO 6000' standard atmosphere it would be .001987  slugs/ft3.       
I'm Casca and I approved this message.