September 8, Tuesday

We attempted to model an accurate representation of our blimp on Solidworks, with the aim of coming up with an estimate of the volume of our blimp. The first step we took to achieve this was to plot the geometry of the template we used for each gore of Mylar. This was done by establishing a coordinate system on our template. We took the leftmost tip of the template as the origin, then measured the x and y coordinates for 16 points on each arc. These 16 points were used to form each arc on Solidworks, and the two arcs were subsequently joined together to form the geometry of our template.

 

Initially, we created 3 templates representing the 3 gores that we made.

We then assembled them but we were unfortunately stuck as we could not figure out how to join the tips together.

After watching some tutorials and playing around with SolidWorks, we approached this issue from another direction. Due to our balloon’s unique shape, simply revolving it around its tip axis would not give an accurate representation of its volume. Hence, some manipulation was required.  First, revolve the stencil 90 degrees about its tip axis.

 

Next, cut out a section as represented above. Ensure its angle is 120 degrees. This is 1/3 of the balloon

 

Lastly, assemble 3 identical parts to form the shape of the balloon, volume can then be found under properties in SolidWorks.