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Why is this loft not working?
chad_chaffee
Member Posts: 13 ✭
I'm trying to make a wind turbine blade for a project and the loft isn't working. It works fine between the first three profiles, as can be seen here, but the moment I try to connect the others it fails. The error message says that it would create a self intersecting body, but no matter how I look at it, I can't see a difference between the part that works and the rest of it. I am fairly new to this. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.
Best Answer
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eric_pesty
Member Posts: 1,881 PRO
The trailing edge seems to come to a point with a very thin section before so the top and bottom face of the loft probably end up going through each other during the transition between profiles.
You should add some amount of "square" at the trailing edge to avoid this (you can't manufacture an infinitely thing trailing edge anyway).
You could also try to make the the top and bottom face separately by splitting your profiles but you'll still get the two faces going through each other (but at least you'll see where the problem is.1
Answers
Can you share a public document?
Most likely there is an issue with one (or more) of the cross sections having a self-intersection, perhaps at the trailing edge.
The trailing edge seems to come to a point with a very thin section before so the top and bottom face of the loft probably end up going through each other during the transition between profiles.
You should add some amount of "square" at the trailing edge to avoid this (you can't manufacture an infinitely thing trailing edge anyway).
You could also try to make the the top and bottom face separately by splitting your profiles but you'll still get the two faces going through each other (but at least you'll see where the problem is.
Thank you @eric_pesty! That makes sense. I just imported a CSV from airfoiltools.com. I even thought at one point that the trailing edge was obviously unrealistic, but I didn't take the simple extra mental step to consider that the modeler was also having an issue with that.
Thank you. You're right—it's the trailing edge, as Eric also pointed out. I have it figured out now. Thanks again for your time.