To calculate the volume of helium required for neutral buoyancy based on the mass of components and blimp.

Assumptions

  1. Temperature is constant.
  2. The gas is purely helium
  3. The density of surrounding air is constant
  4. Atmospheric pressure is constant

Derivations

Using the equation -

Buoyant Force = Densityair X Volumeair displaced X g


For the blimp to float -

Buoyant Force = Weight of Blimp


Therefore -

DensityAir X Volumeair displaced X g = (MassBlimp + VolumeBlimp X Density helium) X g

where,


MassBlimp = MassComponents + MassMylar


Since,

Volume_air displaced = VolumeBlimp


On simplification, we get -

Volume = MassBlimp / (DensityAir - DensityHelium)


where,

MassBlimp = MassComponents + MassMylar


I hope the equation can help the team members to determine the approximate dimensions of the blimp.

Air Swimmers Blimp

For the past few weeks, I have been playing around with the air swimmers blimp to gather some intuition.

Next Post Previous Post