Tsunami - composites, part 3
 

In the continuing chapters of my composites endeavours, I'm starting part three.

To begin, I owe a friend a stab and tail for his plane. He helped tremendously with the fuse plug construction. Obviously, the parts will be composite. The goal on this one is to reduce the weight even further. 3rd time's a charm on the wing, right? :D

For this layup, We have decided to use a 60lb density foam as the wing skins rather than 1/16" contest balsa. Bob Mellen at flyingfoam.com cnc cut some ~3/32" foam sheets out of blue 60lb foam. These will be used on the next stab as an experiment. If it works, we'll then move towards using it on a wing.

I doubt that I will have much progress in the next few weeks as I am going to NY on vacation Aug 16-24. But, I will chronicle things as have been done in the past. Stay tuned.

Michael

Tsunami - composites, part 3
 

Sounds cool.... I look forward to the progress.

Tsunami - composites, part 3
 

looking forward to it Mike.

Tsunami - composites, part 3
 

Well, been awhile, but we're in the garage building today. It's 10:30am pst and you can see us on the webcam. Will be molding a stab and wing today.

http://www.luvaraairracing.com/cam.html

Michael

Tsunami - composites, part 3
 

Well, piled up a few more photos. Starting on Labor day, we layed up a new stab and wing for a Tsunami. This time, instead of 1/16" contest balsa as the core material in the wing skins, a high density, 3/32" thick foam was used. So far, the results look very promising for weight reduction!

-Michael

Here's a picture of the new core material for the bottom wing panel.

Tsunami - composites, part 3
 

Upper wing panel material.

Tsunami - composites, part 3
 

Here's one panel with two layers of 1.4 oz cloth and carbon near key areas.

Tsunami - composites, part 3
 

Wing before core is laid down. A layer of 1.4 oz is then put over the top of the core material along with some carbon tow near the spar area and misc reinforcement near the wing le and te.

Tsunami - composites, part 3
 

Cory watches the wings and tail as the vacuum pump sucks down to 15" of mercury.

Tsunami - composites, part 3
 

Stablizer halves in the bag.

Tsunami - composites, part 3
 

Wing and stab in bags

Tsunami - composites, part 3
 

Top skin out of mold with peel ply removed. Came out very nice. Noticeable this time was the amount of epoxy that the breather and peel ply absorbed - much more than normal! This indicates that the foam obviously does not suck up as much resin as balsa. =lighter weight!

Tsunami - composites, part 3
 

Stab out of mold after spars were installed and the two halves joined.... Total weight = 4.1oz. This is equal to or better than any other previous stab. Some areas of weight reduction (stab joiner, etc) are targetted for next series of stabs.

Tsunami - composites, part 3
 

Lower wing half with spars and landing gear structure in place. Ready for joining.

Wing halves are currently in the mold being bonded together. Results will be known tomorrow!

Michael

Tsunami - composites, part 3
 

Been meaning to follow up on this, but I had the rare chance to get out of town for the weekend and headed to the Reno Air Races. Anyways, the wing came out about 1lb, 12 oz (same as last wing), but had some blemishes. This is the first wing that I have done with a clear surface (no primer, pigment) and it was like the bag didn't suck down all the way on the top wing surface as there are some air bubbles between glass layers.

Michael

Tsunami - composites, part 3
 

Went back and tried a stab with regular balsa this week. Total weight 4.5oz. This was not contest balsa and the weight amounted to approximately 1/2 ounce over normal layups.

Stab with flashing not yet removed

Tsunami - composites, part 3
 

Stab with flashing removed and hinges cut, showing skin hinge deflection.

Tsunami - composites, part 3
 

Stab with flashing removed. Looks cool with balsa and a clear coating!

What Kind of foam
 

Hi
Great Pic's

Question:

1. What kind of foam is it that you are using ?

2. Where did you source it from ?

3. Did you have to cut it down to 3/32 ?

Thanks a bunch

Mikey D

Tsunami - composites, part 3
 

Mikey,

The blue foam that we tried was blue, 6lb (if memory serves correctly). It was cnc-hot wired to 3/32" thickness by Bob Mellen of Flyingfoam.com. I concluded that this particular foam is good for structures that need a core adn that have significant glass on the surface. With the thing layers that we are using, the blue foam dents really easily and has no weight savings over 1/16" contest balsa. The balsa appears to be more rigid and has more torsional strength than the blue foam. I would use divinycel or rohacell if I were to bag wings.

Michael