Home made wind tunnel

[aerohead]

Originally Posted by Sven7

I was actually planning on doing something very similar to that... great minds think alike?

Might be difficult with a 100lb clay model

Could you do the majority of the form with a foam substrate with only a thin veneer of clay?

[Sven7]

That's what we do, and it's still freakin' heavy!

[aerohead]

Originally Posted by Sven7

That's what we do, and it's still freakin' heavy!

I have done one-off shapes with lightweight drywall compound over open cell Styrofoam.It's pretty light,very soft and easy to cut/sand/add to/float( using flexible BONDO spreaders or stainless steel splines(SP?)/etc..
When you 'get' your shape you can orange shellac it,followed by lacquer primer,and top coat if desired.
Papier Mache over a lightweight armature can also render an extremely light form.Kinda tedious to work with,but amazing lightness!

[Sven7]

I was mostly talking about the 1/4 scale clay model my friend already made this semester with a Lincoln sponsored project. It would be nice to make a lightweight model but we don't have one right now and do not have the time to make one in the near future.

Maybe after graduation, when we actually have lives, this can happen. Til then, Flow Illustrator! If you know of a way to convert Autodesk 3D files, particularly .wire, into CFD format let me know. We both have several Alias models that could be used in CFD, if we could only find a way to do it.

Here is a photo of the foam buck for my sophomore project. The model has since been destroyed.


Here are some other people's finished models from previous years.

[aerohead]

Originally Posted by Sven7

I was mostly talking about the 1/4 scale clay model my friend already made this semester with a Lincoln sponsored project. It would be nice to make a lightweight model but we don't have one right now and do not have the time to make one in the near future.

Maybe after graduation, when we actually have lives, this can happen. Til then, Flow Illustrator! If you know of a way to convert Autodesk 3D files, particularly .wire, into CFD format let me know. We both have several Alias models that could be used in CFD, if we could only find a way to do it.

Here is a photo of the foam buck for my sophomore project. The model has since been destroyed.


Here are some other people's finished models from previous years.

I'm worthless to you with such things.Perhaps a Big-Three lurker is out there with experience they can share without jeopardizing their employment situation.

[Sven7]

C'est la vie.