moment system on a wing can be completely specified by the lift and drag acting through the aerodynamic center,

plus the moment about the aerodynamic center, as sketched in Figure 5.9. It is convenient to move the location of the resultant force that is moving along - to the new location; aerodynamic center; that is almost stable. By operation of adding two equal forces one at the center of pressure, and another one at the aerodynamic center- we can move the location of the resultant force. By doing so, we have to account for that, by introducing an aerodynamic pitching moment (see fig 5.10). This will add a moment to our aerodynamic force. Therefore we can conclude that the pressure and shear stress distributions over a wing produce a pitching moment. This moment can be taken about any arbitrary point (the leading edge, the trailing edge, the quarter chord, etc.). The moment can be visualized as being produced by the resultant lift acting at a particular distance back from the leading edge. As a fraction of the chord, the distance to this point, is known as the center of pressure. However, there exists a particular point about which the moments are independent of angle of attack. This point is defined as the aerodynamic center for the wing.

a. The force on pressure center b. Addition of two equal forces

c. Force on aerodynamic center

Figure 5.9. The movement of resultant force to aerodynamic center The subsonic airfoil theory shows that lift due to angle of attack acts at a point on the airfoil 25% of the chord aft of the leading edge. This location is called the quarter-chord point. The point through which this lift acts is the aerodynamic center (ac). In wind tunnel tests, the ac is usually within 1% or 2% chord of the quarter-chord point until the Mach number increases to within a few percent of the drag divergence Mach number. The aerodynamic center then slowly moves aft as the Mach number is increased further.

Figure 5.10. The aerodynamic lift, drag, pitching moment

Wing Design

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