contourReferenceType

complexType · extension complexBaseType · all

Airfoil contour of a control surface at a border

The airfoil (airfoilUID) replaces the section of the wing at the border. Its chord lies on the chord of the border, from PLE to PTE, and the contour is scaled with the length of that chord in the chordwise as well as in the thickness direction. rotX rotates it about that chord.

scalY and scalZ are factors on that scaling, not lengths: with scalZ = 1 the contour keeps the thickness ratio of the airfoil, with scalZ = 0.5 it is half as thick. An airfoil of 12 % thickness on a border with a chord of 0.3 m is therefore 0.036 m thick at scalZ = 1.

Like every airfoil, it is a closed contour that runs from the trailing edge over the leading edge back to the trailing edge (profileGeometryType), and it describes the complete section of the control surface: the part that follows the surface of the wing as well as the part inside it, e.g. the hollow rear side of a leading edge device. The control surface is then the shape between the contours of its borders and is no longer cut out of the wing, so that its surface can deviate from the surface of the wing. To describe only the part inside the wing and take the rest from the wing, use innerShape or leadingEdgeShape instead.

The contour of a border, referencing an airfoil that describes the complete section of the control surface: 

<innerBorder>
    ...
    <airfoil>
        <airfoilUID>Wing_slatContour</airfoilUID>
        <rotX>90</rotX>
        <scalY>1</scalY>
        <scalZ>1</scalZ>
    </airfoil>
</innerBorder>
Airfoil contour at a border

Attributes

NameTypeConstraintsUseDefaultDescription
@externalDataDirectoryxsd:stringoptionalDirectory of the external data file
@externalDataNodePathxsd:stringoptionalPath of the node inside the external data file
@externalFileNamexsd:stringoptionalName of the external data file

Child elements

NameTypeConstraintsOccurrenceHow often the element may appear at this place. The schema writes it as minOccurs and maxOccurs on the declaration.DefaultDescription
allThe children below may appear in any order. Each may appear at most once.
airfoilUIDstringUIDBaseType[1..1] requiredAirfoil
rotXdoubleBaseType[1..1] requiredRotation about the axis from the leading to the trailing edge point of the border; 90 places the airfoil perpendicular to the middle plane of the control surface [deg]
scalYdoubleBaseType[1..1] requiredScaling in spanwise direction, not used for two-dimensional airfoils [-]
scalZdoubleBaseType[1..1] requiredScaling in thickness direction, as a factor on the chord of the border; 1 keeps the thickness ratio of the airfoil [-]

Used by

In a dataset · 18 paths

In the schema · 3 declarations

TypeName
controlSurfaceBorderLeadingEdgeTypeairfoil
controlSurfaceBorderSpoilerTypeairfoil
controlSurfaceBorderTrailingEdgeTypeairfoil