Coandă effect
The Coandă effect (IPA: ['kwandə]), also known as “boundary layer attachment”, is the tendency of a stream of fluid to stay attached to a convex surface, rather than follow a straight line in its original direction. The principle was named after Romanian discoverer Henri Coandă, who was the first to understand the practical importance of the phenomenon for aircraft development.
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coanda_effect
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coanda_effect
Also important if you want to build a flying saucer
note lookup How stuff works
February 1, 2008 at 9:20 am
I’ve read an argument that holds that the Coanda effect doesn’t actually contribute that much to aerodynamic lift, although important for other reasons.
(Like the fact that interesting and far too exciting things happen when the boundary layer becomes disrupted from the wing…) Interesting video demonstration on YouTube showing it, using streamers stuck to the wing while the aircraft was first flown normally and then slowed down until it stalled.
February 4, 2008 at 4:09 pm
I’ve edited this entry to add a link to the original source — don’t forget you must credit your sources, and make it clear when you are quoting.