Options

Following is the list of options for AirfoilCST and AirfoilFFD modules. Options are divided into three categories: CST related options, FFD related options and general options.

CST related options

numCST (list)

two-item list denoting the number of CST coefficients - first entry is for upper surface and second entry is for lower surface. This is a required option when using CST parametrization

FFD related options

nFFD (int)

total number of FFD control points along the chord. This is a required option when using FFD parametrization

fitted (bool, default=False)

option to decide whether to use a box FFD or a fitted FFD

xmargin (float, default=0.001)

the closest distance of the FFD box to the tip and aft of the airfoil

ymarginu (float, default=0.02)

When a box ffd is generated this specifies the top of the box’s y values as the maximum y value in the airfoil coordinates plus this margin. When a fitted ffd is generated this is the margin between the FFD point at an xslice location and the upper surface of the airfoil at this location

ymarginl (float, default=0.02)

When a box ffd is generated this specifies the bottom of the box’s y values as the minimum y value in the airfoil coordinates minus this margin. When a fitted ffd is generated this is the margin between the FFD point at an xslice location and the lower surface of the airfoil at this location

fixLETE (bool, default=True)

option to specify whether to fix the leading edge and trailing edge of the airfoil. This option is only applicable when using FFD parametrization

smoothing (bool, default=False)

option to specify whether to use laplacian smoothing or not when generating samples

smoothingTheta (float, default=0.75)

option to control the amount of smoothing in an iteration

smoothingMaxIterations (int, default=100)

maximum number of iterations for smoothing

smoothingTolerance (float, default=5e-4)

stopping criteria for smoothing

writeDeformedFFD (bool, default=False)

option to specify whether to write deformed FFD file or not

General options

airfoilFile (str)

name of the .dat file with extension. This is a requried option, irrespective of the parametrization

solverOptions (dict, default={})

options for the flow solver (only adflow for now)

meshingOptions (dict, default={})

options for the volume mesh generator (only pyHyp for now)

aeroProblem (default=None)

aero-problem from baseclasses package defining information related aerodynamic analysis

directory (str, default="output")

name of the directory where the results will saved

noOfProcessors (int, default=4)

desired number of processors to run the analysis on

refine (int, default=0)

value of this options controls how much to refine or coarsen the generated volume mesh When the value is zero, there is no change to the volume mesh. When the value is 1 or 2, the volume mesh is refined by one level or two levels respetively. When the value is -1 and -2, the mesh is coarsened by similar levels

writeSliceFile (bool, default=False)

option to specify whether to add a slice in the mesh and write the slice file or not

writeAirfoilCoordinates (bool, default=False)

option to specify whether to write deformed airfoil coordinates (dat file) or not

plotAirfoil (bool, default=False)

option to specify whether to plot deformed airfoil or not

getFlowFieldData (bool, default=False)

option to specify whether to get the field data or not

region (str, default="surface")

this option only applies when getFlowFieldData is set to True. This option decides from what region to extract the data. There are only two possible values: surface (will extract the field data at surface) and field (will extract the entire field)

alpha (str, default="explicit")

option to specify whether to consider alpha as an explicit or implicit variable. There are only two possbile values: explicit (normal analysis) and implicit (internal root finder). When this option is set to implicit, then for each sample secant method is used to find alpha such that target CL is achived. So, this option also takes longer to evaluate. Note: When this option is set to implicit, then alpha cannot be added as a DV

targetCL (float, default=0.824)

this option only applies when alpha is set to implicit. This option specifies the value of target CL to be met

targetCLTol (float, default=1e-4)

this option only applies when alpha is set to implicit. This option specifies the required tolerance to be met for target CL

startingAlpha (float, default=2.5)

this option only applies when alpha is set to implicit. This option specifies the initial guess for angle of attack (in degrees) for secant method. Note that this value has a huge impact on the convergence speed of the secant method. So, it is recommended to set this value close to the expected value

samplingCriterion (str, default="cm")

this option decides which method to use to generate Latin Hypercube samples. Only four options are available: c, m, cm, ese

randomState (int, default=None)

this option is used to set the random state while generating Latin Hypercube samples