Originally Posted by
BMatthews
............Something we can play with to get a feel for this is to make sure you Java is up to date and then go play with Foilsim. In particular the pressure distribution readout and how it alters with changes from a very low Coefficient of Lift or Cl value up to the Cl's we get at around 8 to 10 degrees of angle of attack. It's quite the eye opener.
http://www.grc.nasa.gov/WWW/K-12/airplane/foil3.html
Very interesting tool indeed, BMatthews !!!
The abrupt change in pressure after the stall is very evident, as well as how camber influences all.
If switching to velocity, those big peak values show that most of the work that the wing does over the air to obtain the reaction of lift is done next to the leading edge.
Somehow different for the little perturbation that our tiny wings represent, but the concept is the same.
I wish they had a 3-D distribution of the pressures on a real wing, in order to see how the absolute value of top and bottom pressure also decreases along the wingspan and how some air flows span-wise (bottom flows faster than top) and induces the tip vortex.
It would be great that the museum could add some demonstrative pictures to that placard that we have discussed here.
