Sail Design Research Articles

The Velocity Distribution on a Polynomial Mean Line and the Converse

Interest in sail design has recently stimulated some work, using thin aerofoil theory, to obtain the velocity distribution on simple polynomial mean lines. In particular in reference 1, a solution has been obtained for a cubic mean line. There is an omission in equation (3) of this reference where an x should appear in the numerator outside the curly bracket. (The equation is subsequently used in its correct form).In the present note a general solution is obtained for polynomial mean lines. It is demonstrated by applying the result to Boyd's equation (3).