Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 July 2016
This paper describes an investigation conducted at the request of the Aeronautical Research Committee, who made a grant to one of us for the purpose. It is submitted by permission as an essay to compete for the R.38 Memorial Prize.
No essential alteration has been made in the form of presentation adopted in our preliminary reports, but to meet the needs of the general reader we have added the introductory paragraphs which follow. These explain briefly the nature of the problem which we have set ourselves, the range of our solution, and the bearing of our results on practical questions which confront the designer of a rigid airship hull.
1 Three reports (T.3047, a and b) were presented to the Aeronautical Research Committee in December 1930, March 1931 and May 1931 respectively.
2 It is assumed that we pass along the tubular framework in a definite (positive) direction.
3 Equation (13) of the paper.
4 Cf. §17.
5 Cf. equation (19).
6 The system C 0 consists of a unit displacement for every joint.
7 “ On the Calculation of Stresses in the Hulls of Rigid Airships.” R. V. Southwell. (Also published by the Aeronautical Research Committee, R. & M. 1057.)
8 Aeronautical Research Committee, R. & M. 800.
9 Cf. R. & M. 1057, §3.62.
10 ibid.
11 Cf. R. & M. 800, Introductory Section.
12 If N is the number of joints in each transverse frame, it will be appropriate to letter the first joint A and the last N, as in this diagram.
13 Cf. §2.48 of R. & M. 1057.
14 A more rigorous investigation is given in Appendix II.
15 Cf. §24.
16 Cf., however, infra §29.
17 Cf. Introduction, (7) and (8).
18 Cf. §6, Equations (1) and (6), of the Introductory Section. Hitherto we have used N to denote the number of joints in a bulkhead, and the joint immediately adjoining A as datum. No confusion should be caused by the altered convention which is here adopted.
19 Cf. Equation (10) of §21.
20 Cf. (e.g.) Equations (33) and (34) of §34.