[balloon-makers] Matlab over AutoCad stress?

["Tim Baggett" <private e-mail address>]

As an electrical engineer, AutoCad has always caused me stress...

I used Matlab to model MacNutt's third balloon, and it worked well.
Matlab is a numerical analysis package that operates well on vectors and
matrices. It is programmed through a Matlab scripting language (they
also have Simulink which is block oriented, but I  have not used it).

Since I use Matlab often in college and in my day job doing signal
analysis and signal processing, I spent a little bit of time importing
Phil's half-gore pattern from the Smalley spreadsheet into Matlab. From
there, a Matlab script mathematically fit the gores together into a full
3D envelope shape. It could easily be modified to calculate volume, etc.
I have the Matlab generated images and source on my web site, which
currently appears to be down.

I had always wanted to take this a step farther and model the lifting of
the envelope, with a load (basket, equipment, etc.). I'm not a
professional mechanical or civil engineer, but I did take statics and
dynamics, so I would think that with some studying and consulting, the
script could then calculate an estimate of the stress loading. To really
get fancy, one could probably allow for stretching of the fabric, etc.


Does any known model of the temperature inside an envelope exist? Have
any known experiments been done?

Or, is it best to assume the entire volume of the envelope is of a
constant temperature, with no temperature variations throughout?

Tim


-------
Balloon-makers mailing list: use "imailsrv@deering.org" to unsubscribe