What is the aerofoil efficiency measured in? Thanks?
Answers:
i'msure it is lbs, as a wing works by lowering the pressure above the wing in relation to the pressure below, therefore the pressure beneath the wing lifts the wing into the vacuum created by the lower pressure.
an aircraft is given what we call and all up weight, AUW which is the maximum the aircraft can lift, for example the R22, which i fly has an AUW weight of 1375lbs, meaning that the aircraft can not exceed that weight, the DOM or dry operating mass of the R22 is 865lb therefore we can only load 510lbs of variable mass, IE pilots fuel and cargo on board the aircraft.
In jets there is a huge AUW, for a 737 800, I believe that the AUW is 62800kg. but the downside of this is that the fuel used by the aircraft has to be factored in the AUW, for example the two types of fuel used AVGAS, which is for piston aircraft and JET A which is used for jet aircraft weighs 6lb and 6.7 lb respectivley, per us gallon. in the 737 800 the Zero fuel mass of the aircraft 51300kg, whichmeans that the maximum fuel load of the aircraft is only 5311 us gallons.
all of the above info is factored on the amounts of lbs in lift that the wings provide.
sorry for the technically babble but is important.
Thanks
JD
In aerodynamcs, there is no reference to "airfoil efficiency".
Airfoils are designed specifically for high or low speeds, high or low maximum lift and a variety of other design requirements. The designer's goal is to pick an airfoil from a catalog of airfoils that will accomplish the aircraft mission most effectively given the various constraints of the mission.
The only factor resembling efficiency for an airfoil is the lift/drag ratio, a dimensionless parameter which is not only a function of the airfoil but the angle of attack it is operating at.
There are four forces acting on an aerofoil. Lift, drag, weight and forward thrust. How efficiently a particular aerofoil performs when all these factors are considered would indicate it's true efficiency. What exact unit is used to measure this I'm not sure, perhaps a ratio.
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