PPRuNe Forums - View Single Post - Why Do Aircraft fy? Flat Plate Lift Vs Bernoulli?
Old 22nd Dec 2008, 22:49
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Blip
 
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With or without a camber on the upper surface of a wing, the pushing force on the underside of a wing is not increased as a result of the lowering of static pressure on the upper surface, but the static force acting downwards on the upper surface of the wing is reduced as a result of reducing static pressure,
That agrees with what I am saying so no problems there.

...thereby allowing the wing to be drawn (sucked/pulled/whatever) into the reduced pressure zone.
No problems here either. It's just that we seem to be visualising it differently. What you see as a pull, I see as a reduction in push.

OK I think I know how to make my point.

You have a long straw 1 metre long and made of glass. You put the end of the straw in a bowl full of mercury and start sucking on the straw. When you do this you notice the mercury travel up the straw towards you mouth. It seems the harder you suck, the further you are pulling the mercury towards you mouth.

You think to yourself if I suck really really hard I will be able to pull the mercury right up to the top of the straw. But as hard as you try, you can't suck hard enough for it to reach the top and your mouth starts to hurt for the extra effort you made.

If you are determined to get the mercury to the top of the straw, you might decide to let a mechanical pump to take over the sucking. Surely if you had a pump strong enough, you would be able to suck/pull/draw the mercury to the top of the metre-long straw!

So that is what you do. You connect a very powerful pump which is able to create a vacuum so strong, it causes 99.99% of air in the straw to be removed. It's almost a perfect vacuum inside the straw now.

So guess what? The mercury still didn't reach the top of the straw! In fact it only travelled 76 cm above the level of mercury in the bowl. Now does 76 cm mean anything to you? No? How about if you convert it to inches?

Now I ask you? Is the mercury in the straw being sucked/pulled/drawn up the straw, or is it being pushed from below?

What I am asserting is that the sucking of air up and out of the top of the straw, is simply the removal of the opposing downward force on the mercury from that air pressure on the mercury surface on the inside of the straw. The force of air pressure pushing the mercury up the tube from below does so until the weight of mercury in the tube above the level of mercury in the bowl plus the remaining downward pressure in the partial vacuum is equal to the pressure pushing down on the surface of the mercury in the bowl and up the tube.

Same thing with the top surface of the wing. You are reducing the downward force of air pressure on the top surface of the wing. But there is still a downward pressure! It's just that it is not enough to balance the upward force on the underside of the wing.

Last edited by Blip; 23rd Dec 2008 at 00:05.
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