fineness ratio

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fineness ratio

[′fīn·nəs ‚rā·shō]

(aerospace engineering)

The ratio of the length of a streamlined body, as that of a fuselage or airship hull, to its maximum diameter.

fineness ratio

The ratio of the chord to the maximum thickness of an airfoil expressed as a percentage. In the case of other streamlined bodies, it is the ratio of their length to their maximum diameter, or, sometimes, to some equivalent dimension. This is said especially of bodies such as airship hulls or rockets. For best results, the ratio should be about four to one, but it really depends on the air speed; the higher the speed, the greater should be the fineness ratio. However, experiments show that there is not much variation in the drag for quite a large range of fineness ratios. Also called a thickness/chord ratio.

References in periodicals archive ?

Jetting medusae generally possess small, prolate bells (i.e., high aspect or fineness ratio) with constricted orifices leading to their subumbrellar cavities (Colin and Costello, 2002; Dabiri et al., 2006).

In contrast, rowing medusae usually possess oblate bells (i.e., low fineness ratio) with large subumbrellar orifices.

Changes in bell morphology during development were quantified by measuring the fineness ratio, F, and velar aperture ratio, [R.sub.v], of different sized medusae when they were in a fully expanded, relaxed state (Weston et at, 2009).

Instantaneous fineness ratio, [F.sub.i], denotes the fineness ratio of medusae at a given point in the swimming cycle and is used to compare variations in changes of bell shape throughout pulsations of different medusae.

Profiles of fineness ratio ([F.sub.i]) over time of a small (0.17 cm diam.) and a large (0.5 cm diam.) medusa illustrate these kinematic differences (Fig.

Ontogenetic changes in the bell morphology and kinematics and swimming behavior of rowing medusae: the special case of the limnomedusa Liriope tetraphylla

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