Preliminary Design 3

AER3022
A Note on Engineering Units
Throughout the design project, any data you present must be in consistent units. It is advisable to work in a single
system of units from the outset although you can work in other systems of units and make the necessary conversions
at the end of calculations if you prefer. Be very careful not to mix different systems of units. The following is a brief
review of the main systems you are likely to encounter.
Always try and use coherent units, that is units which involve no constant so that the product or uotient of any two
unit uantities in the system is the unit of the resultant uantity, e.g. ! kg "mass# times ! m$s
%
"acceleration# euals !
kg m$s
%
& ! ' "force#. (bviously we should choose the uantities which can be most readily measured and
standardised to a very high degree of accuracy, and commonly these are accepted as mass, length and time.
There are four accepted systems of coherent units and you are strongly advised to keep to a coherent system under
all circumstances. If non)coherent units are supplied for a particular problem, you are recommended to convert them
to a coherent set of units before starting on calculation work. The four systems of units are*
1. S.I. units metre, second, kilogram
This is the accepted international system of units. +or example
F & m"kg#f"m$s
%
#
The derived unit of force, which is the kg.m$s
%
, is for convenience known as the 'ewton, '. The 'ewton is the force
reuired to accelerate ! kg at ! m$s
%
.
2. CGS system centimetre, gram, second
F = m"g#f"cm$s
%
#
The derived unit of force is the dyne, dyn. 'ote that !,
-
dyn & ! '. The dyne is the force reuired to accelerate ! g at
! cm$s
%
.
. !ritis" system #1$ %t, lb, second
F = m"lb#f"ft$s
%
#
The derived unit of force is the poundal, pdl. The poundal is the force reuired to accelerate ! lb at ! ft$s
%
.
&. !ritis" system #2$ %t, slug, second
F = m"slug#f"ft$s
%
#
The derived unit of force is the pound)force, lbf. The pound)force is the force reuired to accelerate ! slug at ! ft$s
%
.
'ow, ! slug & .%.% lb "approx#
and ! lb & !$".%.%# slugs
/o, if we have !$".%.%# slugs multiplied by the acceleration due to gravity "g & .%.% ft$s
%
# then*
lbf ! # "ft$s .%.% "slugs#
".%.%#
!
%
=
'ote that this is still a coherent system of units "ft, slugs, seconds#.
0hat we can see is that, physically, ! lbf is euivalent to the weight of a !lb mass. This is convenient, but care must
be taken, however, since lbf and lb are not coherent units "lbf, lb, ft and seconds are regarded as a gravitational
system of units#. It is easy to be out by a factor of .%.% in your calculations when using these units. The lb and lbf are
widely used in the aerospace industry, especially in the 1/A, and much statistical design data will be found in this
format.
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