Coursework report. On the 24th of September 2012 our class visited the Bristol and Gloucestershire Gliding Club.

This was to research the physics that goes into making gliders work. There are many aspects to this, from the actual glider to the airfield. When we first arrived, we were met by a man named Nigel Smith. He is a club member and lifetime Cadets member, quite highly ranked as well. He took us into the clubhouse located near the entrance to give us a quick introduction. First he showed us the glider winch, he told us about how it works and why they use it. He then took us to the hangers to see the gliders and planes. He showed us three gliders. One was modern and made of fibre glass; he described why it was lighter and stronger and how it was made. He then showed us one from about 10 years ago, made of wood and fabric. Then showed us a breakdown of a wing, and then explained the history of why and how these were made. Next he took use to another hanger, where they have the two tug vehicles. He then described the differences and why these were. How one had a two wing propeller and the other four. The Club: The club was formed as The Bristol Gliding Club in 1938 by two member of the Cambridge University Gliding Club. It had 30 members at this time but had to close due to the war being on. After the war they were given the use of the RAF Aerodrome at Lulsgate. Kemsley Flying Trust gave them low interest short term loans to buy more aircrafts to use. This lasted for a few years, but then in 1954 It was announced that Bristol Airport was to move to Lulsgate so the club had to look for a new site. It was fortunate that Nympsfield was on sale at the time so they purchased it. At first it was just a field with a barn, but over the years they have expanded. Added water, hangers and converted the barn to a clubhouse and made it the successful club it is today.

The Winch: The winch is a 300hp V8 diesel engine designed to pull 1200m of cable with a glider on the end at 65 mph, enough to give it lift, removing the need of a plane to pull it up. The winch is designed very well Nigel explained. It has large spools that move side to side so when the cable is wound it doesnt fold over and it spread evenly, so then when it is unwound it unwinds smoothly. In case of emergency when the glider doesnt break loose, there is a guillotine on the spool designed to cut the wire. He was saying that a glider with a wire hanging down is able to land relatively safely saving the glider, the winch and the pilot. If the cable isnt cut and the glider doesnt break loose it will crash destroying the glider, the winch and probably both people. The Cable: The cable is 7x7 braided steel. It has a centre strand in each separate piece of cable which is thicker than the other pieces because the other pieces are then wrapped around it. Stress/strain: The centre stand has a diameter of 0.000358 m. I measured this with a micrometer. Therefore I divide by two to get the radius. Which is 1.79x10-4 . Now to get the area, I use the formula: r2 . This

means I get 1.006597702x10-7 m2 . Now the usual thing to do would be to round to 3 significant figures, but as I am using this number to add to everything else, it would decrease the accuracy at the end. Now because the cable is 7x7, this means there is 7 centre strands so I times by 7. This gives me 7.0046183915x10-7 m2 . Now there are 6 other pieces of cable along with the centre cord. The diameter of this was 0.000286 m . Therefore the radius is 1.43x10-4 m. I use the formula r2 again. Therefore I get 6.42424817x10-8 m2 . Now because overall there is 49 small cables to make the overall cable. 7 of these are the centre cable therefore there are 42 other cables the same. So we times 6.42424817x10-8 m2 by 42. Which means the overall cross sectional area is all of the separate cables added together. This gets 3.402800375x10-6 m2 . Of course using this we have to assume that the cable is straight, when really it is wound up. Now we have the area of the cable, we need to work out stress () and strain (). The equations I will use for this part will be. F=MA (force=mass x acceleration), =F/A (stress = force/area), = x/x ( strain = change in length/ original length), E= / (Young Modulus=stress/strain) The variables: Weight of glider ( for this we shall assume the glider as ASK-21): 600kg Cable: 1200m Winch: 0-65mph in 3.2s. 1mph=0.44704ms-1 therfore you times 65 by 0.440704 and it equals 29.0576. Therefore to find the acceleration it is (acceleration = change in velocity/change in time). Acceleration = 9.0805 ms-2 The force of the winch then can be found out with F=MA so 600 x 9.0805 = 5448.3 Newtons Stress:
=F/A. Now we have force and the cross sectional area of the cable so we can now work out the stress. Which is: 5448.3 / 3.402800375x10 = 1601122428.46 Pa (measured in pascals)
-6

Strain:
= x/x: because we cant measure the extension of the cable as its pulling the glider for obvious

reasons. We can work back from the Young Modulus which we already know as 200 GPA. E= / is the equation for Young modulus. Rearranged to give strain: =/E. So, 1601122428.46/2x1011 =
0.00800561214 = x/x now we rearrange for X x = X ( original length x strain = change in length)

1200 x 0.00800561214=9.606734568 metres