PPRuNe Forums - View Single Post - Theory on lift
Thread: Theory on lift
View Single Post
Old 3rd Dec 2012, 18:37
  #340 (permalink)  
awblain
 
Join Date: Dec 2007
Location: Pasadena
Posts: 633
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
Owain,

I think your baulked flow beneath the wing picture, where the wing is within a fraction of a chord distance of the ground (Fig 4 of your diagram) is effectively describing a sort of `ram-air hovercraft', where there is an enhanced static pressure beneath the vehicle - plus a lot of extra drag, as you're slowing more mass down in the horizontal direction than you would a long way above the ground.

I would suggest that enhanced lift and reduced drag in what a glider would recognize as ground effect is a more subtle dynamic process where you slow air less horizontally, which allows you to move more air vertically, thus simultaneously increasing lift and reducing drag.

I agree completely that the surface pressure on the wing is related to the speed just outside the boundary layer, and any compression that's occurred. I'm just not sure the picture in the diagram is right to describe what I'm assuming about the flow around a wing in ground effect.
awblain is offline