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fabric on ribs with huge spacing, doable?

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leviterande

Well-Known Member
Joined
Oct 14, 2008
Messages
133
Location
Danmark
Im deisgning and testing various smaller prototypes towards a blended wing/lifting body concept, kind of like the facetmobile.

I have a question about fabric covering .

The concept involves big spacing between the ribs/members. Few members are around 3.5m apart between. I.e.a round 3.5meters of empty space is planned to be covered with fabric. the fabric after heating will be in tension. All frame members are made to withstand all the stress forces.

The question is if the fabric will be sagging too much? I calculated that on a 3.5m long fabric carrying a distributed lift force load of 40kg a tension of around 135kg is required to sag around 10cm(which I think is good for the experiment purposes). Do I still need to "bridge" the two members to decrease sagging as seen in the picture(brown bridge)
I know the best way to find the answer is to carry on the experiment but because a lot of experiments are being carried and a lot of people are experienced with covering aircraft I wondered if anyone could perhaps give some feedback whether this is doable or absolutely not? All support/notes are appreciated.

Thank you
/Levi
 

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