Control Surface Refinement

Introduction

The chordwise length and end angles may be further refined for Control Surfaces (CS). The chordwise length may be set as constant for the span of the surface or may have different lengths depending on your application. The end angles may also be set manually and either set to be equal or different than each other. By default, the angles are defined to align with the component X-axis. The leading or trailing edge is the reference for these angles. For example, an angle setting of 90° will result in the CS end to be normal to the trailing or leading edge of the wing. This is very easily visualized with highly swept wings. By leveraging unique lengths and angles at the start and end of a CS, users are capable of defining a variety of interesting deflection surfaces for analysis, export, or visualization.

Users should also be aware that the Num Points in the Surface End Angle box sets the number of points used to spline the UW curve for the CS. Very low numbers of points will result in a curved or “wiggled” CS boundary in some cases but you’ll find that the default value of 15 will result in a generally straight side. Highly variable or stretched surfaces such as a heavily swept vertical tail root fairing or tip will potentially lead to odd deflections in the CS boundary. In these cases, try adjusting the length or Num Points to clean up the edges.