The current method in which the wing is swept is inaccurate, as it 'drags' the tip rearwards (or forwards) to achieve the required leading edge sweep. Export coordinates of root and tip airfoils to create a 3-D model in CAD software. Parameters include NACA airfoil, wing reference area, aspect ratio, taper ratio, and LE sweep. Wing twist or washout, and angle of incidence (not visible in GUI yet). Create basic trapezoidal aerodynamic surfaces with airfoil cross sections. Plot any 4-digit or 5-digit airfoil (uses my airfoil generator function). Then the wing is simply mirrored about the root to create the other half and complete the wing.
These can be loaded into SolidWorks or any other CAD program as a curve, and the tip and root curves can be lofted together into a solid wing. txt files with the tip and root airfoil coordinates.
I also added the a section on the planform view to show the MAC - this is an important thing to visualize. I also added the capability to sweep the wing. The inputs were reversed - for that class, the area needed to be calculated for a given wingspan, whereas in the design scenario the wingspan is determined by the area and the aspect ratio, so the inputs needed to be changed. I adapted this program for one I previously made for an aerodynamics class. I am actively working on expanding it to create fuselage cross sections which will be used to create a 3-D model.
I decided to use MATLAB to take the results from the Excel spreadsheet and produce coordinates for a wireframe model of the airplane, which could be loaded into CAD software and turned into a 3-D model.Ĭurrently, my MATLAB program can only produce the wireframe of a wing (or any similar aerodynamic surface). They provide very rudimentary 3-views of the aircraft. This is where the Excel sheets lack in ability. We also need to produce a 3-D model of our design. Our professor provided us with Excel spreadsheets that have many of the calculations programmed into them our goal is to optimize the parameters to meet the requirements. The purpose of this aircraft is to loiter for long periods of time at low altitudes to observe/monitor maritime vessels, act as an airborne control center for nearby aircraft, and even deliver payloads (sonobuoys) and ordnance (torpedoes, air-surface missiles). Our group is designing an MSA, or Maritime Surveillance Aircraft. The term project is to complete a conceptual aircraft design - each group will be designing a different type of aircraft. "A universal parametric geometry representation method-CST." AIAA Paper 62 (2007).This semester I am taking an aircraft design and performance class. For detail information you can refer to the original paper by Brenda Kulfan: You can also easily add the order of CST by simply adding additional weight value on wl or wu inputs. The latter will gives coordinates that resembles the shape of Clark-Y airfoil. Where the output is a set of x and y coordinates of CST generated airfoil.Īs a demonstration, you can try the following:ĬST_airfoil(, ,0,400) The input to CST_airfoil.m is the following:
The code is easy to use and also very easy to be modified for your own needs. CST build the airfoil by summing the individual contribution of its basis function that is built by Bernstein Polynomial. CST with low order polynomial is also suitable for airfoil preliminary design and optimization purpose since it only needs few parameters to give specific shape of airfoil. CST method is a powerful parameterization method because of its simplicity, robustness, and its ability to be generalized into various possible shapes of aerodynamic bodies.