Sunday 16 March 2014

I am finally able to be back with this project...



Hello all!

I’m not doing very well with these updates, am I? Anyway, a few updates:

  • I am now a chartered engineer! For. The. Win!
  • I have finally finished doing the brushless DC motor for a STEM project, so I can get back on it!

 Since the last post, I’ve checked my calculations for the items I posted in the last update, which I will go on to discuss now.

Approximate Size of the Sail

As I noted in my last post, I had the size of the sail written incorrectly. This should be:

S = 0.5 x 1.7 x 1 = 0.85m^2

Wind Force on the sail

With the new sail size, this becomes:

ρ = 1.423 @ 25 degC
S = 0.5 x 1.7 x 1 = 0.85m^2
C = 1
V = 70mph = 31.2928 m/s (Assuming strongest possible winds in Atlantic).
F = 0.5 x 1.423 x 0.85 x 1 x 31.2928^2 = 592 N 

Although I don’t think I actually need this calculation for the sail sizes, it’ll be nice to know for later on.

Moments on vessel

As detailed before, the moments on the boat created by the keel will remain at 5800. I may look to reduce the thickness of the keel at a later date as it seems quite…well…thick. However, I have played with a 3mm thick piece of aluminium that is 1m long and it just flexes more than I would like to see. I think I need to get “hands on” to confirm this decision now.

So, to balance this, the mast needs to be able to handle a certain amount of force at a certain distance. Although last time I performed the calculation at 1.7m, I have realised that this is not sensible as the centre of the force on the sail will be a lot lower down.

I think the centre line of a triangular sail that is 1.7m high by 1m long is 850mm, but to double check it:

Line height
850
mm
Length of line
500.09
mm
Area above line
2.125E+05
mm^2
Area below line
2.130E+05
mm^2

Within calculation error, this is close enough. The force centre of the sail is at 850mm high.

So, with the moments from the keel remaining at 5800, the balancing force on the mast should be:


Force (N)
Dist (mm)
Moment
Mast
68.24
850
5800

Following on from the last post, I have looked at the wind speed that would topple the vessel with the force calculated above. I then completed a simple calculation at how the angle of the wind to the vessel would effect it:

Possible Speed to topple boat
10.62
m/s
@ 90 deg to boat direction
23.76
mph
@ 60 deg to boat direction
27.44
mph
@ 30 deg to boat direction
47.52
mph
@ 15 deg to boat direction
91.80
mph
@ 5 deg to boat direction
272.62
mph

Then I added another assumption. My vessel is rarely going to be bolt upright, it’s more likely that the boat will be travelling along with at least a 30 degree lean (heel?). So, with that assumption in place, the numbers are changed as thus:

@ 90 deg to boat direction
47.52
mph
@ 60 deg to boat direction
54.87
mph
@ 30 deg to boat direction
109.75
mph
@ 15 deg to boat direction
424.03
mph
@ 5 deg to boat direction
4865.17
mph

So, this makes a lot more sense. I have looked up the average wind speed in the Atlantic, which is (give or take) at 40mph.

So conceivably, if I have my calculations correct, this should be the perfect mass of keel bulb and sail size to keep sailing happily at normal, perpendicular wind speeds in the Atlantic.

Before someone points this out to me, I haven’t taken into consideration the weight of the mast or the weight of the sail which will change these calculations, but then the weight of the batteries that will sit under the waterline may counteract some of that. If during testing, the vessel heels over too much, I’ll review the design to improve it.
 
Size of the mast
 
Doing the calculations for this has been a pain as there still isn’t a lot out there. I asked for assistance from some of my Mechie friends, but they weren’t sure either as it is quite a new material. Anyway, I managed to find an online tool that gives me the deflection (bend) and the stress on a tube of a certain size (http://easycalculation.com/mechanical/deflection-round-tube-beams.php). I found the material properties on another site (http://www.performance-composites.com/carbonfibre/mechanicalproperties_2.asp) and then I reworked my calculation as shown below:

Carbon Fibre Tube Inner Diameter
Carbon Fibre Tube Thickness
Force at 850mm
Deflection (Bend dist)
Bending Stress
mm
Inches
mm
Inches
N
Pounds
Inches
mm
psi
14
0.55
1.35
0.05
68.24
15.34
2.745
69.723
54622
18
0.71
1.4
0.06
68.24
15.34
1.087
27.6098
27922
19
0.75
1.4
0.06
68.24
15.34
0.9097
23.10638
24680
22.2
0.87
1.4
0.06
68.24
15.34
0.563
14.3002
17734
26.5
1.04
1.4
0.06
68.24
15.34
0.319
8.1026
11991
28.5
1.12
1.4
0.06
68.24
15.34
0.252
6.4008
10210
32
1.26
1.4
0.06
68.24
15.34
0.174
4.4196
7922
35
1.38
1.4
0.06
68.24
15.34
0.131
3.3274
6522

When I preliminarily did this a while back, I worked out that the 22.2mm wide tube would do the trick, but that the 26.5mm tube would be better as it is over-spec’d slightly. Putting the results of the calculation here shows them all laid out. I might even go bigger than this.

To be 100% honest with you, I’m now quite tired, so I won’t make a decision tonight and come back to this next time. Now that I finally have more time, I’m hoping this will be next weekend.

Next Steps


  • I think I need to work into my design the displacement to make sure I know how much load this design will take before it will no longer float.
  • Keel bulb size and shape.
  • Keel thickness review.

To be continued.........


No comments:

Post a Comment