Fitting fairings

As said, the wing-body join's dynamics are not easy to design for. A design would encompass both the internal structure (where a problem has been found) and the outside cover (which would include a proper fairing). And, fairing design requires higher-order mathematics and real knowledge.

A lot of technology is involved in aero engineering parts, like the fairing, but let's just look at a modeling part of the problem. The fairing and wing design would involve a closed volume which has a surface (albeit a collection of entities that may or may not be smooth - the leading edge, for instance, has stronger requirements than aft pieces) as its boundary.

Creating and analyzing these entities encompasses the design part of the problem. Then, there are the issues related to manufacture. That is, one can model assemblies and parts for design, function, and make issues. At many points, the model can be evaluated to allow choices between alternatives using techniques that require serious computing. Specifics related to materials and methods can be scrutinized.

Since we outsiders don't really have specifics, a little general talk might be of interest. One part of the problem is how do we extract information from data? That is, the fairing surface may have to fit point-set data derived from a CAE program (flow, for instance) which had defined how the entity that meets aerial requirements looks and functions (data). Well, a point-set is not an operable surface, in the context of CAD/CAE/CAM (See CAx).

One can take this problem a step further and consider how sampled data that has measurement, and other, error can be fit so as to extract what the data shows. As an aside, manufacturers, including plane makers, use reverse engineering a lot which is a fitting problem. So, relating to the wing/fairing design, an operable design structure needs to be discovered from the data derived from aero analysis.

So, one of the many things to consider would be noisy data.

One might ask, though, how can data from a CAE program be noisy. Well, it has to do with the differences between representations (necessary both for the model and the mathematics) and the constraints that need to be met, in part. Think of it this way. If you hear something in a language that is unknown to you, does it not sound meaningful, or like noise?

One big problem in modeling by computer is the serious mismatch (several types) that can occur despite a lot of effort and sweat, though some progress seems to have been made.

Modified: 08/24/2011