Important

The documentation is not yet finished, but should be good enough to make meshes.

PyAero documentation

PyAero is an airfoil contour analysis and CFD meshing tool written in Python.
PyAero is open-source and distributed under the MIT license, see LICENSE.

_images/SD7003_velocity_AOA6.png

PyAero generated mesh (Solver: SU2, Visualization: ParaView)

_images/gui_airfoil_MAC.png

PyAero user interface at a glance

_images/LE_mesh.png

Example mesh around HN1033 airfoil - Leading Edge

_images/TE_mesh.png

Example mesh around HN1033 airfoil - Trailing Edge (with finite thickness)

_images/mesh2.png

Example mesh around HN1033 airfoil

_images/RG14_3D_laminar_Iso-Q_pressure.gif

Example calculation result

Above analysis result was obtained using the CFD code AVL-FIRE. It is an unsteady laminar 3D calculation of the RG14 airfoil. The mesh was thickened with several layers in spanwise direction in order to allow for turbulent fluctuations in all three dimensions. The calculation result shown is based on pure laminar settings (i.e. no turbulence model switched on). Later (result not shown) a LES calculation using the Kobayashi SGS model was done. With the applied mesh resolution both approaches lead to quite similar results.

Aerodynamic coefficients, RG14 airfoil, RE=330000, AOA 2°, 20 million cells

Model

Drag

Lift

Laminar

0.0079

0.371

LES

0.0078

0.362

Features

  • Load and display airfoil contour files

  • Airfoil splining and refining

    • Prepare contour for meshing

    • Splining is done to get a smooth contour and sufficient contour points

    • Refining allows to improve leading and trailing edge resolution

  • Airfoil contour analysis

    • Analyze gradient, curvature, and curvature circle at the leading edge, i.e. leadinge edge radius

  • Trailing edge generation

    • Specification of the trailing edge thickness (blunt trailing edge)

    • Smart blending functions (arbitrary polynomial)

    • Independent blending for upper and lower contour (e.g. for strong cambered airfoils)

  • Automatic generation of block-strcuctured meshes for airfoils

    • Currently only single element C-type meshes are supported

  • Mesh control

    • Boundary layer region

    • Wake region

    • Windtunnel

  • Mesh export (most formats based on the meshio library)

  • Simple aerodynamic analysis, i.e. panel methods

Quick start guide

Follow the Quick start guide tutorial to get a first impression of the key functionality.

Code repository

The code ist hosted on GitHub: PyAero source code