Modeling Airfoils in Solidworks
It all begins with an idea.
Some Resources :
http://www.charlesriverrc.org/articles/supergee/SuperGeeII.htm
http://airfoiltools.com/airfoil/details?airfoil=ag45ct02r-il
http://airfoiltools.com/airfoil/details?airfoil=ag46ct02r-il
http://airfoiltools.com/airfoil/details?airfoil=ag47ct02r-il
A quick list of steps to going from this :
To this :
I’m going model that AG455ct first. A quick search on http://airfoiltools.com/ brings us to a page with all the information about the airfoil we will need.
Search for AG455ct. A google search should bring up the airfoiltools page reliably.
Next we will want to download a file describing the points of our airfoil cross section
Click “Send To Airfoil Plotter”
Change the parameters to fit the dimensions of your airfoil
Click “CSV file of coordinates” to download
Open the CSV file in a text editor. We will be copying all the data for the airfoil surface to a separate text file.
Add another column of zeros to the copied data
add ,0.0 at the end of every X,Y coordinate. Solid works will be looking for an X,Y,Z set of coordinates later
find and replace with regular expressions enabled
FIND : \n
REPLACE : ,0.0\n
The only entry we miss is the very last one because there is no return after the last data point.
In Solidworks
Curve Through XYZ point (Good Example)
Brows to the text file with our airfoil coordinates and choose that as a coordinate source
Curve to sketch
Create a sketch in the plane where you can see the full airfoil cross section
Select the curve and use the convert entities tool
We need to repair the tail since the shape isn’t closed
Extrude into a 3D airfoil shape
