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    PyFly: A fast, portable aerodynamics simulator

    266157.pdf (2.693Mb)
    Access Status
    Open access
    Authors
    Garcia, D.
    Ghommem, M.
    Collier, N.
    Varga, B.
    Calo, Victor
    Date
    2018
    Type
    Journal Article
    
    Metadata
    Show full item record
    Citation
    Garcia, D. and Ghommem, M. and Collier, N. and Varga, B. and Calo, V. 2018. PyFly: A fast, portable aerodynamics simulator. Journal of Computational and Applied Mathematics. 344: pp. 875-903.
    Source Title
    Journal of Computational and Applied Mathematics
    DOI
    10.1016/j.cam.2018.03.003
    ISSN
    0377-0427
    School
    School of Earth and Planetary Sciences (EPS)
    URI
    http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/67225
    Collection
    • Curtin Research Publications
    Abstract

    We present a fast, user-friendly implementation of a potential flow solver based on the unsteady vortex lattice method (UVLM), namely PyFly. UVLM computes the aerodynamic loads applied on lifting surfaces while capturing the unsteady effects such as the added mass forces, the growth of bound circulation, and the wake while assuming that the flow separation location is known a priori. This method is based on discretizing the body surface into a lattice of vortex rings and relies on the Biot–Savart law to construct the velocity field at every point in the simulated domain. We introduce the pointwise approximation approach to simulate the interactions of the far-field vortices to overcome the computational burden associated with the classical implementation of UVLM. The computational framework uses the Python programming language to provide an easy to handle user interface while the computational kernels are written in Fortran. The mixed language approach enables high performance regarding solution time and great flexibility concerning easiness of code adaptation to different system configurations and applications. The computational tool predicts the unsteady aerodynamic behavior of multiple moving bodies (e.g., flapping wings, rotating blades, suspension bridges) subject to incoming air. The aerodynamic simulator can also deal with enclosure effects, multi-body interactions, and B-spline representation of body shapes. We simulate different aerodynamic problems to illustrate the usefulness and effectiveness of PyFly.

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