Engineering topics
Publications and source records attributed to Smith, Howard W..
The final report for grant NAG1-345 is presented. Recently, the bulk of the work that the grant has supported has been in the areas of ride quality and the structural analysis and testing of ultralight aircraft. The ride quality work ended in May 1989. Hence, the papers presented in this final report are concerned with ultralight aircraft.
This report reviews the test set-up and procedure for the structural testing of the Airmass Sunburst Ultralight Aircraft. In general aviation today, there is a growing need for more stringent design criteria for ultralight aircraft. Unlike most general aviation aircraft, the ultralight lacks sufficient design criteria and more importantly it lacks sufficient certification enforcement. The Airmass Sunburst ultralight that is currently being tested is responsible for over a dozen deaths. It is believed that had there been a more stringent criteria and certification process, this might have been prevented. Our attempt is to show that the failing loads of the aircraft in question are so far below that of the current design criteria, that the laws need to be changed.
The purpose of this project was to set up, instrument, and test a Sunburst Ultra-Light aircraft. The intentions of the project were that the aircraft would need to be suspended from the test stand, leveled in the stand, the strain gauges tested and wired to the test equipment, and finally, the aircraft would be destroyed to obtain the failing loads. All jobs were completed, except for the destruction of the aircraft. This notebook shows the group's progress as these tasks were completed, and the following section attempts to explain the photographs in the notebook.
The purpose of this project was to create a three dimensional NASTRAN model of the Airmass Sunburst Ultralight comparable to one made for finite element analysis. A two dimensional sample problem will be calculated by hand and by NASTRAN to make sure that NASTRAN finds similar results. A three dimensional model, similar to the one analyzed by the finite element program, will be run on NASTRAN. A comparison will be done between the NASTRAN results and the finite element program results. This study will deal mainly with the aerodynamic loads on the wing and surrounding support structure at an attack angle of 10 degrees.
This report documents the construction, wind tunnel testing, and data analysis of a 1/5 scale ultra-light wing section. Wind tunnel testing provided accurate and meaningful lift, drag, and pitching moment data. This data was processed and graphically presented as follows: C(sub L) vs. gamma; C(sub D) vs. gamma; C(sub M) vs. gamma; and C(sub L) vs. C(sub D). The wing fabric flexure was found to be significant and its possible effects on aerodynamic data was discussed. The fabric flexure is directly related to wing angle of attack and airspeed. Different wing section shapes created by fabric flexure are presented with explanations of the types of pressures that act upon the wing surface. This report provides conclusive aerodynamic data for ultra-light wings.
During the experimental testing of the ultralight, it was determined that a pressure gauge would be required to monitor the simulated flight loads. After analyzing several factors, which are indicated in the discussion section of this report, the Marsh J1678 pressure gauge appeared to be the prominent candidate for the task. However, prior to the final selection, the Marsh pressure gauge was calibrated twice by two different techniques. As a result of the calibration, the Marsh gauge was selected as the appropriate measuring device during the structural testing of the ultralight. Although, there are commerical pressure gauges available on the market that would have proven to be more efficient and accurate. However, in order to obtain these characteristics in a gauge, one has to pay the price on the price tag, and this value is an exponential function of the degree of accuracy efficiency, precision, and many other features that may be designed into the gauge. After analyzing the extent of precision and accuracy that would be required, a more expensive gauge wouldn't have proven to be a financial benefit towards the outcome of the experiment.
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