Airfoil Tools: Aerodynamics software for analyzing isolated airfoils and multi-element airfoils in subsonic, transonic and supersonic flows

How I Developed a Suite of Airfoil Tools

The airfoil software suite was developed progressively, with each new tool building on and verifying the previous step. The objective was to create a modern set of practical airfoil analysis tools for engineers, designers, and students.

Step 1. Develop an airfoil analysis method using a linear-strength panel method combined with a practical stall model. This provided a fast foundation for calculating pressure distributions, lift, drag, and pitching moment over a useful range of operating conditions.

Step 2. Integrate the Step 1 solver into an interactive multi-element airfoil tool. This extended the analysis to configurations containing flaps, slats, and multiple lifting elements while retaining the speed and simplicity of the original method.

Step 3. Develop a graphical interface using an O-grid and an Euler solver based on the Van Leer flux-vector-splitting method. This provided a compressible-flow capability and allowed the panel-method results to be compared with a higher-fidelity numerical solution.

Step 4. Apply the multi-element workflow from Step 2 to an Euler solver using the Van Leer method and a Cartesian grid. The Cartesian-grid approach simplified grid generation and provided a practical path for analyzing more complicated airfoil arrangements.

The overall development strategy was deliberately incremental. Each stage added a new capability while providing an opportunity to verify the calculations against the earlier methods. The result is a related suite of tools covering rapid preliminary analysis, multi-element configurations, compressible flow, and Cartesian-grid CFD.

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