CLASS 3a

LAGOS STATE UNIVERSITY
FACULTY OF ENGINEERING
DEPARTMENT OF AEROSPACE ENGINEERING
ASE 102: INTRODUCTION TO AEROSPACE

CLASS IIIa
INTRODUCTION TO AERODYNAMICS
The word Aerodynamics is the amalgamation of two Greek words: aerios, concerning the air,
and dynamis, which means force. Aerodynamics is the study of forces and the resulting motion of
objects through the air. Humans have been interested in aerodynamics and flying for thousands of
years, although flying in a heavier-than-air machine has been possible only in the last hundred
years. Examples of motions that are affected by aerodynamics are a large airliner, a model
rocket, a beach ball thrown near the shore, or a kite flying high overhead. The curveball thrown by
big league baseball pitchers gets its curve from aerodynamics.
Aerodynamics is essentially the application of classical theories of “fluid mechanics” to external

flows or flows around bodies, and the main application which comes to mind for most aero
engineers is flow around wings. The wing is the most important part of an airplane because without
it there would be no lift and no aircraft. Most people have some idea of how a wing works; that is,
by making the flow over the top of the wing go faster than the flow over the bottom we get a lower
pressure on the top than on the bottom and, as a result, get lift. The aero engineer needs to know
something more than this. The aero engineer needs to know how to shape the wing to get the
optimum combination of lift and drag and pitching moment for a particular airplane mission. In
addition, he or she needs to understand how the vehicle’s aerodynamics interact with other aspects
of its design and performance. It would also be nice if the forces on the wing did not exceed the
load limit of the wing structure.
AN AIRFOIL
Although there are many objects around us that experience aerodynamics. For this course, the
focus will be on a two-dimensional slice of a wing cut parallel to the centerline of the aircraft
fuselage or body.
Trailing Edge
Leading Edge
Figure 1: Airfoil
DEFINITION OF TERMS
 Chord line - A straight line from the airfoil section's leading edge to its trailing edge.
 Chord – This is the length of the chord line.
 Camber line - A line drawn halfway between the airfoil section’s upper and lower surfaces.
 The maximum distance between the camber line and chord line is referred to as the
airfoil’s camber and is usually enumerated as a percent of chord.
Figure 2: Wing
Note – the Planform area is not the actual surface area of the wing but is the “projected area” or
the area of the wing’s shadow. Also, note that some of the abbreviations used are not intuitive.
Span - the distance from wing tip to wing tip (including any fuselage width) is denoted by b
The planform area is given a symbol of “S” rather than perhaps “A”.
Sweep angles are usually given a symbol of lambda (λ).

Aspect Ratio (AR) - Another definition that is based on the planform shape of a wing. The
aspect ratio is also the span divided by the “mean” or average chord. We will later find that
aspect ratio is a measure of the wing’s efficiency in long-range flight.
𝑏2
𝐴𝑅 =
𝑆
AERODYNAMIC FORCES
When two solid objects interact in a mechanical process, forces are transmitted, or applied, at the
point of contact. But when a solid object interacts with a fluid, things are more difficult to describe
because the fluid can change its shape. For a solid body immersed in a fluid, the “point of contact”
is every point on the surface of the body. The fluid can flow around the body and maintain physical
contact at all points. The transmission, or application, of mechanical forces between a solid body
and a fluid, occurs at every point on the surface of the body. And the transmission occurs through
the fluid pressure.
Figure 3: Air Movement around an Airfoil

Pressure Forces act perpendicular to the surface. Force on the body is the vector sum of the pressure
times the area around the body.
𝐹⃗ = ∮ 𝑝 → 𝑑𝐴
𝑛
Meaning the net aerodynamic force F is equal to the sum of the product of the pressure p times
the incremental area delta A in the normal direction n.
Lift - the component of the net force perpendicular (or normal) to the flow direction.
Drag - the component of the net force along the flow direction.

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LAGOS STATE UNIVERSITY

ASE 102: INTRODUCTION TO AEROSPACE

Aerodynamics is essentially the application of classical theories of “fluid mechanics” to external

 Chord – This is the length of the chord line.

Sweep angles are usually given a symbol of lambda (λ).

Figure 3: Air Movement around an Airfoil

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