Vortex Lattice Methods

Software
 Outline
• Basic Concepts
– Boundary conditions on the mean surface
– Vortex Theorems, Biot-Savart Law
– The Horseshoe Vortex
– Selection of Control Point and Vortex Location
– The Classical Vortex Lattice Method
• Software
– VLM (Fortran program)
– TORNADO (in MATLAB)
– AVL (Fortran/C program)
• Applications
– Examples of the use of VLM method
– Insights into wing and wing-canard aerodynamics
 Using VLM Program

Xiongqing Yu

Under the Guidance of Prof. Stephen Batill

at the University of Notre Dame
Notre Dame, Indiana, USA
February, 1998
 Introduction
• Objectives
– VLM is a FORTRAN computer program estimating the subsonic
aerodynamic characteristics of complex planforms.
• Predicting lift and pitch moment coefficients, maximum lift coefficient,
induced drag coefficient and distributions of span load for the complex
configurations.

• Background
– VLM is a modified version of the NASA-Langley Vortex Lattice
Computer Program that had been used at the Langley Research
Center and in industry.
– The original program has been modified to provide a useful tool for
the aircraft design class in the university level.
• To simplify the input and output file for the fixed wing configuration.
• To display the panel arrangement presenting the platforms
 Program Description
• The VLM consists of three subroutines:
– geomtr
– matxso
– aerody
 Program Description
• Geomtr
– When the total approximate panel number is specified
• it is used to determine the number of chordwise horseshoe
vortices
• the number of spanwise rows at which chordwise horseshoe
vortices
• the panel aspect ratio is kept between 0.5 and 4
– When two planforms are used to describe a wing-tail
configuration, this subroutine is used to handle with
panel match between two planforms.
 Program Description
• matxso
– It is used to calculate the circulations which is
required to satisfy the tangent flow boundary
condition.
– The circulations is determined by solving a
matrix equation.
 Program Description
• aerody
– To obtain the lift and pitching moment data
for configurations by using Kutta-Loukowski
theorem.
– The final form of the output data is computed
and printed by this subroutine.
 Modeling the configuration
• Modeling planforms
– The planforms can be modeled with one or two lifting surfaces
• where wing planform can consists of up to three segments, that is in-
board, mid-board and out-board segments, and tail planform is
modeled with a trapezoid.

• Modeling dihedrals
– The wing can have up to three dihedral angles corresponding to
three segments of the wing.
– Winglets can be modeled, but the dihedral angle must be greater
than -90.0 degrees or less than 90.0 degrees. The dihedral of the
horizontal tail can be modeled with one dihedral angle.
• Modeling twist
– The wing can have up to three twist angles corresponding
to three segments of the wing.
• For inboard segment, the angle of its tip section with respect to its
root section is used to define the twist of the inboard segment
– The twists are assumed to be small and can have effect
on the local angle of attack of lifting surfaces, but no
effect on displacements of control points.
• Modeling camber
– When the airfoil of the wing is specified, its camber can
be modeled with a curve determined based on tabulated
data by least-square-distance curve fit
• coordinates of ten points on mean camber line of the airfoil
• Modeling elevator
– It is assumed that the elevator can have effect on local angle of
attack of the control point on the horizontal tail
– the effect on displacements of control points is neglected when
the elevator is up or down.

• Definition of axis system

 Running VLM program
• The input data setup
– The following is the input data required to be specified.
• Group one:
– mach Mach number
– alpd Angle of attack at root section of main wing (degree)
– plan The number of lifting surface (1 or 2)
– nseg The number of wing segments(1,2 or3)
– cg Center of gravity location with respect to the origin of
the coordinate system. Pitch moment computation is referenced
to this location.
Group two: wing external definition
– b1 Span of in-board segment of the wing
– b2 Span of mid-board segment of the wing
– b3 Span of out-board segment of the wing
– cr Root chord of the wing
– ct1 Tip chord of inboard segment of the wing
– ct2 Tip chord of mid-board segment of the wing
– ct3 Tip chord of outboard segment of the wing
– sweep1 Sweep angle of inboard segment (leading line, in degree)
– sweep2 Sweep angle of mid-board segment (leading line, in degree)
– sweep3 Sweep angle of out-board segment (leading line, in degree)
– theta1 Twist angle of inboard segment ( positive for washout, in deg. )
– theta2 Twist angle of mid-board segment ( positive for washout, in deg. )
– theta3 Twist angle of out-board segment ( positive for washout, in deg. )
– dih1 Dihedral angle of inboard segment (in degree)
– dih2 Dihedral angle of mid-board segment (in degree)
– dih3 Dihedral angle of out-board segment (in degree)
– alp_wing Wing incidence angle at root section
– clmax2d Max. lift coefficient of wing airfoil
Group 3: Horizontal tail external definition
– b0 Semi-span of the horizontal tail or canard
– cr0 Root chord of the horizontal tail or canard
– ct0 Tip chord of the horizontal tail or canard
– sweep0 Sweep angle of leading edge
– dihtail Dihedral angle of the horizontal tail
– alp_tail Horizontal tail incidence angle
– ielevator Control variable: set 1 if elevator is up or down; otherwise set 0
– be Elevator span
– cer Elevator root chord
– cet Elevator tip chord
– delta_e Rotate angle of elevator (positive when it is up)
Group 4: Relative position definition between the
wing and the horizontal tail
– distx Distance between leading edge of the root section of
the wing and leading edge of the root section of the horizontal
tail in X-axis;
» Use 0 if only wing is specified (i.e. plan = 1)
» If canard is specified, distx should be negative;
– distz Vertical distance of the horizotal tail planform with
respect the wing planform root chord height (in Z direction)
» use 0 if only wing is specified.
Group 5 : Specify camber of wing airfoil
– iairfoil Control variable
» use 1 for camber airfoil;
» use 0 for symmetric airfoil
– stat Chordwise station location; range from 0 to 100
– yupper Upper surface coordinates of the specified airfoil
– ylower Lower surface coordinates of the specified airfoil
 Running VLM program
• Run the executable file "vlm"
• The interface options
– Input the name of input data file:
– Input the approximate panel numbers of semi-wing.
• Note: generally, this number ranges from 40 to 190 for single
wing, and from 40 to 120 for wing-tail configuration.

– Enter name of output file:

– Enter 0 for brief output. Usually use this option.
Enter 1 for detail output. This option is rarely used.
 Displaying panel arrangement
• You can check input file to verify its correction by displaying
panel arrangement.
• Under the MATLAB environment, run M-file "panelshow", and
the panel arrangement will be displayed on a window.
 The output file
• Two options
– brief output
• total panel layout
• aerodynamic characteristics of total
configuration
– detail output
• each panel information
• All the items of output data for detail output
– x c/4 X location of quarter-chord at the horseshoe vortex midspan.
– x 3c/4 X location of three-quarter-chord at the horseshoe vortex midspan.
This is location of the control point.
– y Y location of the horseshoe vortex midspan.
– z Z location of the horseshoe vortex midspan.
– s Semiwidth of horseshoe vortex
– c/4 sweep angle Sweep angle of the quarter-chord of the elemental panel and
horseshoe vortex.
– dihedral angle Dihedral angle of elemental panel
– local alpha in radians Local angle of attack in radians at control point.
– delta cp ΔCp normal to the surface at dihedral for each elemental panel
under the flight condition. This is located across the panel as an average. It
corresponds to the incremental lift associated with the bound vortex strength
of the particular panel
– ref.chord Reference chord of the configuration
– c average Average chord, cav, true configuration area divided by true span
– total area Total area computed from the configuration listed.
– reference area User input reference area ( wing area )
– b/2 Maximum semispan of all planforms listed in second group of
geometry data
– ref. ar Reference aspect ratio computed from the reference planform area
and wing span.
– mach number Mach number
– CL Lift coefficient under the flight condition / ( q • reference area )
– angle of attack Angle of attack ( input data )
– CL (wing only) That portion of desired lift coefficient developed by the
planform with the maximum span when multiple planforms are specified.
When one planform is specified, this is the desired lift coefficient
– CL alpha Lift-curve slope per radian, and per degree
– CM Pitching-moment coefficient about the reference point (cg)
= Pitching-moment / ( q • reference area • ref. chord )
– alpha at CL=0 Angle of attack at zero lift in degrees; nonzero only when
twist and/or camber and/or elevator is specified
– y cp Spanwise distance in fraction of semispan from root chord to center of
pressure on the left wing panel
– CM/CL Longitudinal stability parameter based on a moment center about the
reference point
– CM0 Pitching-moment coefficient at CL=0

For each spanwise station, the following data are presented; from the left tip
towards the root:
– 2y/b Location of midpoint of each spanwise station in fraction of wing semispan.
– c/cav Ratio of local chord to average chord
– cl c/cav Distribution of span-load coefficients at the computed CL
– cl Section life coefficients = lift per unit length of span / ( q • c)
– x location The X location of the local center of pressure for the resulting span load
at cl , as a function of 2y/b
– cdi induced drag coefficient
– clmax maximum lift coefficient of complete configuration
 Example
• Step 1: Set up input data:
– See Appendix A.
• Step 2: run “vlm”
• Sept 3: The interface options
– Input the approximate panel number of semi-wing.
– Note: generally, this number ranges from 40 to 190 for single
wing, and from 40 to 120 for wing-tail configuration.
• 100
– Enter name of output file:
• example.out
 Example
– Enter 0 for brief output. Usually use this option.
– Enter 1 for detail output. This option is rare used.
• 0

• Step 4: Displaying panel arrangement

– Under the MATLAB environment, run M-file
"panelshow"

• Step 5: Opening output file

– See Appendix B
 Verifications (1)
Result comparisons between VLM and Wing Design

VLM Wing Design discrepancy

Lift coef. Cl 0.4923 0.4860 1.28 %

Pitch moment coef. Cm -0.106 -0.107 0.94 %

Induced drag coef. Cdi 0.0111 0.0110 0.90 %

 Verifications (2)
Result comparisons between VLM and LinAir

case 1 twist=4 dihedral =3 case 2 twist=0 dihedral=0

VLM LinAir discrepancy VLM LinAir discrepancy

Cl 0.6286 0.6186 1.59 % 0.7652 0.7544 1.41 %

Cm -0.5627 -0.5602 0.44 % -0.6375 -0.6313 0.97 %

Cdi 0.02023 0.01948 1.85 % 0.02737 0.02644 3.4 %

 Limitations
• A maximum of two planforms may be specified.
• A maximum of three segments with different twists and dihedrals
may be used to define the wing of a configuration, but only one
segment with one dihedral can be used to define the horizontal tail of
the configuration.
• The maximum number of the panels on the left side is 200. when you
input the panel number more than 200, an error information will
display on monitor.
• The variation in local chord must be continuous from the tip chord to
the root chord of each planform specified.

• The panel number in each chordwise row must be at least two.

 Convergence
• You may use different panel number to run VLM, and
make sure that the computed results reach the
convergence.
• Some common rules of thumb may be used in
selecting the panel number as indication in the
interface when you run VLM.
 References
• Margason, R.J., and Lamar, J.E., Vortex-Lattice
FORTRAN Program for Estimating Subsonic
Aerodynamic Characteristics of Complex Planforms,
NASA TN D-6142, Feb., 1971.
• Lamar, J.E.and Gloss, B.B., Subsonic Aerodynamic
Characteristic of Interacting Lifting Surfaces with
Separated Flow around Sharp Edges Predicted by a
Vortex-Lattice Method, NASA TN D-7921, Sept.,
1975.
Application to EPUAV Design
 TORNADO
• Background
– Tornado is a vortex lattice program developed by
Tomas Melin at the Royal Institute of Technology.
– It was developed as a part of a masters thesis
– Tornado allows a user to define most types of aircraft
designs
– The method is implemented in MATLAB (R12)
 TORNADO
• Wing features
– Sweep.
– Dihedral.
– Twist.
– Taper.
– TE control surface
– Camber (NACA 4D)
 TORNADO
• Design features
– Multiple wings
– Full 3D orientation
– Multiple control surfaces
– Cranked wings
 TORNADO
• Solver features
– Explicit forces in Newtons.
– Stability derivatives with respect to:
• Pitch
• Roll
• Yaw
• Angular rates
– Control surface power derivatives.
– Parameter sweep.
3-D wing configuration
Cp Distribution
Local CL on Main Wing
Result Summary
Stability Analysis
An Application in My Research work
Jointed-Wing Stability Analysis
Jointed-Wing Stability Analysis
Jointed-Wing Stability Analysis
 STRVLM

¾ 数据的输入及修改都较以前直观、方便
¾ 考虑了机身的影响
¾ 翼型的计算不再仅限于NACA四位翼型
¾ 图像的输出也可完全根据用户的需要
界面
实例一
实例二
实例三
AVL (Athena Vortex Lattice)

• Developed by Drs. H. Youngren and M. Drela, MIT

• Inviscid, VLM method code
• Rapid aircraft configuration analysis”
• http://web.mit.edu/drela/Public/web/avl/
 VLM/2004

The VLM , TORNADO and AVL

all have been used in the design
of EPUAV projects at NUAA.

TORNADO/2005 AVL/2006