XFOIL
{{Short description|Interactive program for design and analysis of airfoils}}
{{Infobox software
| name =
| title =
| logo =
| logo caption =
| logo_size =
| logo_alt =
| screenshot =
| caption =
| screenshot_size =
| screenshot_alt =
| collapsible =
| author =
| developer =
| released =
| discontinued =
| latest release version =
| latest release date =
| latest preview version =
| latest preview date =
| status =
| programming language = Fortran
| operating system =
| platform =
| size =
| language =
| language count =
| language footnote =
| genre =
| license = GPL
| website = {{URL|http://web.mit.edu/drela/Public/web/xfoil}}
}}
XFOIL is an interactive program for the design and analysis of subsonic isolated airfoils. Given the coordinates specifying the shape of a 2D airfoil, Reynolds and Mach numbers, XFOIL can calculate the pressure distribution on the airfoil and hence lift and drag characteristics. The program also allows inverse design - it will vary an airfoil shape to achieve the desired parameters. It is released under the GNU GPL.
History
XFOIL was first developed by Mark Drela at MIT as a design tool for the MIT Daedalus project in the 1980s.{{Cite web | url=http://web.mit.edu/aeroastro/news/magazine/aeroastro-no3/2006drela.html |title = MIT Aero-Astro Magazine - Mark Drela Profile}} It was further developed in collaboration with Harold Youngren. The current version is 6.99, released in December 2013. Despite its vintage, it is still widely used.{{cite web|url=http://www.aoe.vt.edu/~mason/Mason_f/MRsoft.html |title=Aerodynamics and Aircraft Design Software |access-date=August 3, 2010 |url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100608184358/http://www.aoe.vt.edu/~mason/Mason_f/MRsoft.html |archive-date=June 8, 2010 }}
XFOIL is written in FORTRAN.
Similar software
- Xfoil for matlab is a port of the original XFOIL code to MATLAB.{{Cite web |date=2023-08-06 |title=Xfoil for matlab |url=https://www.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/fileexchange/50070-xfoil-for-matlab |access-date=2023-08-06 |website=www.mathworks.com |language=en}}
- mfoil is a MATLAB script that uses almost the same physical models as XFOIL, but it is not based on XFOIL. It is also available as a Python script.{{Cite web |last=Fidkowski |first=Krzysztof |title=mfoil: Matlab (and Python) airfoil analysis code similar to XFOIL |url=http://www-personal.umich.edu/~kfid/codes.html#mfoil |access-date=2023-08-06 |website=www-personal.umich.edu}}
- JavaFoil is an independent airfoil analysis software written in Java.{{cite web | url=http://www.mh-aerotools.de/airfoils/javafoil.htm | title=JavaFoil }}
- XFLR5 is an analysis tool for airfoils, wings and planes operating at low Reynolds Numbers, that has implemented XFOIL's Direct and Inverse analysis capabilities.{{Cite web |title=XFLR5 |url=http://www.xflr5.tech/xflr5.htm |access-date=2023-08-06 |website=www.xflr5.tech}}
- QBlade implements XFOIL via XFLR5 for use in wind turbine design.
- OpenVSP is a parametric aircraft geometry and aerodynamic analysis tool supported by NASA.
References
External links
- [http://web.mit.edu/drela/Public/web/xfoil/ The XFOIL home page]
- [http://www.xflr5.tech/xflr5.htm XFLR5]
- [https://github.com/nikhil-sethi/xflrpy xflrpy] (XFLR5 fork with a Python binding)
Category:Free computer-aided design software