Flatthatt, if you go and find the bookshop at any University with an aeronautical Engineering department, you'll find a selection of textbooks with titles along the lines of "aerodynamics for engineers", most of which are a bit excessively mathematical but will usually cover a fair selection of theories.
When I was a student the standard book was "Aerodynamics for Engineering Students", by E.L. Houghton and N.B. Carruthers. I have my 10 year old copy in front of me which lists the following in the contents page...
- Bernoulli (2d inviscid flow theory)
- 2D viscous flow theory
- Finite aerofoil theory (using the simplified horseshoe vortex model)
- Estimation of pressure distributions from boundary layer theory.
- Mach number effects and supersonic flow / thin wing aerodynamics.
(so that's five methods, I'd forgotten the BL method, which is usually only used for drag estimation rather than lift).
Interestingly I also recently acquired a 1930 reprint of a 1926 textbook by Glauert called "aerofoil and airscrew theory" which has Bernoulli's theory on page 10, basic aerofoil theory (the 2D viscous flow method) on page 117 and 3D viscous flow on page 125. He also lists the same two methods (momentum method and blade element method) as Houghton for how propellers work. What I really love about Glauert's book however is the separate chapters on monoplane and biplane aerofoil effects, the latter is sadly missing from most modern textbooks.
Hope that help, it's also fascinating that 3 out of the 5 methods I learned in the 80s and 90s were already published in the 20s.
G
N.B. Bookworm, Engineers and Scientists are most certainly not sure about why wings fly. We are pretty confident that we can predict whether they will and how well, but as to why - no. I asked this in my office (containing four qualified aeronautical Engineers from CEng to HNC) recently and nobody was prepared to say that they did.
Last edited by Genghis the Engineer; 12th May 2002 at 11:29.