GL Garrad Hassan

Aerodynamic blade design training

Workshop XFOIL
120 mins.

Main objectives:
- To be introduced to this industry standard airfoils design & analysis tool
- To analyze existing airfoils geometries
o Quantify impact of viscosity on performance
o Derive pressure coefficient distributions and identify key events
- To derive airfoils tables for later use in training

Suggested approach:
Getting started

1. Go to the folder XFOIL in data for students\day1.4-airfoils_workshop

2. start XFOIL through the executable: .. \XFOIL\bin\xfoil.exe

3. load the NACA64421 geometry.

a. type “?” to get a listing of possible commands

b. type “load”
c. type “NACA64421.dat”
d. visualize with “ppar”.

4. compute a first performance point – inviscid flow:

a. again type “?” to get a listing of commands
b. type “oper”
c. “alfa” and give reasonable value, e.g. 0°
d. The plot window should show the cp-distribution and the force coefficients
e. Perform sanity check.
i. What is the cp at the stagnation point near the LE? And cp on the TE?
ii. What is the cp-distribution from the suction and the pressure side?
iii. What is the chordwise location of min pressure on the suction side?
Relate to the airfoils studied (hint: check the NACA-6-series
nomenclature)

Inviscid study

5. optional: the NACA64421 has a design lift coefficient c l,design = 0.4 (3rd digit). quantify the cl-
range for which the airfoils yields negative pressure gradients over suction and pressure
surface from the LE to the intended location of minimum suction side pressure, x/c=0.4
(2nd digit)

6. derive the polar for the NACA64421 for -15°≤ α ≤ 15°, for inviscid flow. Note automated
generation of the inviscid polar is only possible in XFOIL, not XFOIL.
a. In “OPERi”, type “pacc”
b. “aseq”
c. Plot polar with “pplo”
d. In folder ..\XFOIL\bin, you will find the polar file. It might not have an extension!

7. compare current results against thin airfoils theory

a. check lift curve slope
b. determine actual aerodynamic centre (default cm reference location: c/4)

viscous study
8. switch on the viscous solver:
a. type “visc”
 b. prompted for the Reynolds number, enter 4e6
c. note the Mach number remains at 0: incompressible flow
d. switch off polar accumulation, “pacc”

9. compute performance at α = 0° and compare against also given potential flow solution.
Idem for α = 5°.

10. in case you don’t manage to get a converged solution for α = 5°, this is because XFOIL
uses converged viscous solutions at previous, nearby α, to arrive at the viscous solution
for current α. The step from α = 0° to α = 5° apparently is too large. To resolve the issue,
do the following:
a. turn of viscous solver: type “visc”
b. compute performance at α = 0° - note we start at α = 0° again, where the
boundary layer is fully attached, without large pressure gradients and hence
relatively easy to converge
c. switch on viscous solver: visc
d. aseq, with reasonable step size, to α = 5°. Try a few step sizes to see what
works.
e. To visualize cp-distribution at α = 5°: cpx

11. polar
a. note to set the Reynolds number to Re = 4e6.
b. first obtain a converged viscous solution at a negative α, e.g. α = -10°.
c. Polar from the negative α to a fairly high α, beyond stall, say α = 20°. Note to take
small α-increments to promote convergence.
d. Visualize the polar
e. A 2nd polar, now with Re = 7e6. Note to first switch of automated polar
accumulation and return to the negative α before running this polar. You’re
advised to save the polar under a new file name.
f. Visualize the 2nd polar and compare to the 1st one.
g. Make sure you save the 2 polar files on your computer. We will need them later.

12. create polars at Re = 4e6, 7e6 for the NACA64618 airfoils (naca64618.dat). You’re
advised to perform a few sanity checks on computed results at selected α prior to running
a polar. Again, please save the polar files.

13. idem as 16, but now for the dicker DU airfoils: DU91-W2-250 (DU91_W2_250.dat), DU00-
W2-350 (DU_W2_350.dat) and DU00-W2-401 (DU00_W2_401.dat).

14. exercise to go from XFOIL modelling at small α-range to airfoils tables for the entire 360°
range. We will use the tool “AirfoilsPrep_v2p2.xls” from NREL for this. Note this tool can
do more than that. Other functions are e.g. interpolation between airfoils, three-
dimensional (rotation) correction & generation of coefficients for the Beddoes-Leishman
dynamic stall model.
a. Open the spreadsheet with macros enabled
b. The worksheet of interest is “TableExtrap”. Go here and input the XFOIL results in
the left-hand-side table (red numbers).
c. Observe the differences seen when selecting either the Viterna or the flat plat
method.
Vitterna & Corrigan:
Cd,max = 1.11 + 0.018 AR
with AR the aspect ratio,
AR = R*/cav
where cav is the average chord length and R* the radius, both from the point 1 meter
outboard of max chord to tip.
d. Use AR of 19 to compute Cd,max with vitterna correction and use to find the 360°
airfoils data.
e. Store data
f. Idem for all airfoils modelled in XFOIL.