Author Topic: Aerodynamics: plane weight vs wing & tail lifts  (Read 1292 times)

Offline Ex-jazz

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Aerodynamics: plane weight vs wing & tail lifts
« on: March 28, 2009, 04:43:24 PM »
Hi

I still try to understand the airplane aerodynamic forces and now I'm curious how much lift the wing and tail must generate on level flight with certain plane weight at certain speed.

I coded a calculator to test  a different settings, but I am not sure if my wing & tail lift results are totally off or not.

The Cl, Cm, & Cd figures are generated with linear interpolation, between -5 - 11 aoa degrees. The static margin is ~10%MAC.


Is there available in public a real plane data, from where I could see/calculate the forces on cruising condition?

Thanks

Offline AKHog

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Re: Aerodynamics: plane weight vs wing & tail lifts
« Reply #1 on: March 29, 2009, 12:08:39 PM »
If your question is only how much lift does a plane in level flight produce, you are making this more complicated than it needs to be.

A plane in level flight generates exactly as much lift as it weighs. Any more lift (from airspeed or angle of attack) will cause a climb, and less lift will cause a decent. Your math appears to be right as your total lift is within an acceptable margin of error of your total weight.

Also, outside of very few specialized designs like canards, the tail surfaces of most aircraft do not produce lift, but instead actually produce a downward force opposite of lift. It is one of the reasons airplanes are aerodynamically stable, and can be trimmed with the elevator to fly at a constant speed and return to that speed if upset.
« Last Edit: March 29, 2009, 12:14:04 PM by AKHog »
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Offline Ex-jazz

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Re: Aerodynamics: plane weight vs wing & tail lifts
« Reply #2 on: March 29, 2009, 04:19:17 PM »
Hi AKHog

Thank for your feedback.

I wasn't clear with my opening post.

I know the plane lift must match with plane weight. What I'm after is that longitudinal stability and involved linear & rotational forces.

I would like to know with what kind of wing lift(+) and tail lift(-) forces the known real life plane is flying on level with certain weight & speed.  This could be a good reference for later on testing.

This is a short animation from calculator in action. NOTE! The plane figure is just a symbolic:
http://fdm4bge.1g.fi/Files/10001/apics/Force_cal_demo.avi

Offline AKHog

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Re: Aerodynamics: plane weight vs wing & tail lifts
« Reply #3 on: March 29, 2009, 05:36:44 PM »
What I'm after is that longitudinal stability and involved linear & rotational forces.

I'm not sure what you are getting at. Your question involves a lot more variables than your model takes into account.

These forces would also be very different from plane to plane.
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Offline 1Boner

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Re: Aerodynamics: plane weight vs wing & tail lifts
« Reply #4 on: March 29, 2009, 05:57:34 PM »
Actually if you take the supercalifragalisticexpialado cious and compound it with the fractional momentum of the hypotinuse of the rubicks cube, you would come to the fairly obvious conclusion that I had no idea what I was talking about!



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Offline bozon

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Re: Aerodynamics: plane weight vs wing & tail lifts
« Reply #5 on: March 29, 2009, 06:34:34 PM »
Ex-Jazz, if I understand your intention correctly, I am afraid this is going to be a little complicated.

The force that the tail must apply on the wing (lets call it elevation torque) needs to balance the torque that the airflow applies on the wing. For this you need the pressure distribution around the wing surface. Once you have that, you can integrate the forces and calculate the force moment. Perhaps there is a way to estimate this from the averaged air speed difference above and below the wing and apply some vorticity/angular momentum argument, but I'll have to think about this.
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Offline Casca

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Re: Aerodynamics: plane weight vs wing & tail lifts
« Reply #6 on: March 29, 2009, 07:53:43 PM »
The numbers are going to vary considerably with changes in loading as well.  Any CG movement will have an effect.
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Offline Cthulhu

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Re: Aerodynamics: plane weight vs wing & tail lifts
« Reply #7 on: March 30, 2009, 10:36:30 AM »
Actually if you take the supercalifragalisticexpialado cious and compound it with the fractional momentum of the hypotinuse of the rubicks cube, you would come to the fairly obvious conclusion that I had no idea what I was talking about!



Math is cool. :cool:
Yo Boner,

Let me simplify it for you:

The limit, as time approaches infinity, that you will ever understand this thread, equals zero.

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Offline Ex-jazz

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Re: Aerodynamics: plane weight vs wing & tail lifts
« Reply #8 on: March 30, 2009, 11:17:13 AM »
Hi

Thank you for your feedback.

Yes, the aerodynamics is a bottomless swamp of mind bending equations  :rolleyes:


I try to understand how this diagram is working and model it with python language.


Current problem
The wing and tail are generating the lift based moment and I try to figure out how these moments are added to the final calculation.

# t = moment ( 0.5 * rho * v**2 * area * Cm)
# r = moment arm
# F = force

#  F = wing moment(t) / moment arm(D1?)

Because the F will be negative, should I subtract it from the wing lift or add it to the weight or something totally else?

Thanks
« Last Edit: March 30, 2009, 11:19:05 AM by Ex-jazz »

Offline Stoney

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Re: Aerodynamics: plane weight vs wing & tail lifts
« Reply #9 on: March 30, 2009, 02:03:52 PM »
I'm not sure what you're looking for here, but:

I have static stability equations, trim drag equations, etc. 

It looks like you're trying to find the neutral point?
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Offline AKHog

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Re: Aerodynamics: plane weight vs wing & tail lifts
« Reply #10 on: March 30, 2009, 02:14:24 PM »
I, too, am confused as to what you are really asking about here.

You are asking a very complicated question that requires a lot of math and several variables, but seemingly either don't understand or are ignoring some very basic underlying concepts.

It sounds like you have an interest in the math behind flight. I would suggesting getting a basic aerodynamics text book, it would likely answer most of your questions and more.
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Offline Ex-jazz

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Re: Aerodynamics: plane weight vs wing & tail lifts
« Reply #11 on: March 30, 2009, 02:56:11 PM »
Hi

You are right. The subject seems to be far more complex than I though... (sigh).

It's a time to buy a book about the aerodynamics and take a good time with it. Few times...


 Here is a last ' calculator demo'  video(1.8M) , which most likely have just a 'wtf?!' entertainment value from aerodynamics point of view.
http://fdm4bge.1g.fi/Files/10001/apics/Force_cal_demo2.avi

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Offline gripen

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Re: Aerodynamics: plane weight vs wing & tail lifts
« Reply #12 on: March 30, 2009, 03:11:11 PM »
At least when I have been designing RC-planes, I start from wing profile, which has it's own Cm characters and then I try to extend that to entire wing and tail surfaces. In other words I don't see much point to calculatte tail moments without considering first the profile Cm.

I have a nice little program called Profili2 which contains a large profile library and which can generate NACA profiles so basic analysis rather easy with it (there is Xfoil built in). However, I have not designed anything from scratch with it yet but have been trying to improve existing designs.


Offline Ex-jazz

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Re: Aerodynamics: plane weight vs wing & tail lifts
« Reply #13 on: March 30, 2009, 03:30:41 PM »
Hi Gripen,

I'm not trying to design the new plane from clean table. No. I'm trying to 'read' the real life planes in some level and calculate/estimate/guess the acting forces to get in same ball park with figures.

Lets see if I every will get there.


Offline Motherland

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Re: Aerodynamics: plane weight vs wing & tail lifts
« Reply #14 on: March 30, 2009, 07:45:42 PM »
Aerodynamics related question... I've seen it a couple times now... what is moment?