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Old 12-23-2007 | 01:31 PM
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BMatthews
 
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From: Chilliwack, BC, CANADA
Default RE: downforce calculations!

Google for Foilsim. If you reduce the wing size and speed to your model and the airfoil's thickness and camber to 0 you can calculate the "lift" for any reasonable angle of attack. You can also leave the thickness at 0 and add in some camber to see the highly positive effects you can get from just curling your flat plate a little.

Keep in mind that this is for a clean flow environment. If you're lookint at a wing for a car or boat then the local airflow will be anything but clean and results may well vary wildly. For such applications there's no way to see what the results will be other than shoving the whole thing into a wind tunnel. This is why you sometimes see wings mounted with what appears to be a zero angle. WHen that's done it's usually because the local airflow has a strong downwards component due to a raised area in front and the air is reacting and flowing downwards. At that point the apparent angle is zero but the wing may well be seeing a proper 6 or more degree angle of attack. Keeping in mind all this is reversed of course.