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Old 7th Jun 2014, 19:52
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WeekendFlyer
 
Join Date: Sep 2002
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Just one caution I would add - don't take a 2D aerofoil section lift coefficient and use it directly for a 3D wing. The 2D CL is always higher than the 3D CL, sometime much higher, unless you have an extremely large aspect ratio. Also any real 3D wing aerodynamics such as sweep, taper or washout will reduce the whole-wing CL.

As a rough guide, typical light aircraft will have a CLmax of about 1.4 clean, and about 1.8 with plain flaps. To get CLmax above 2 you need some complex high lift devices such as leading edge slats, slotted flaps and possibly vortex generators. However, vortex generators are usually a fix, applied if things don't quite work out as expected with the basic wing profile and high lift devices.

Can I recommend you get a good textbook on the subject? This is the one my degree students use:

Fundamentals of aerodynamics - John David Anderson - Google Books
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