PyFly: A fast, portable aerodynamics simulator

Garcia, Daniel; Ghommem, M.; Collier, Nathaniel O.; Varga, B. O. N.; Calo, V. M.

doi:10.1016/j.cam.2018.03.003

Title: PyFly: A fast, portable aerodynamics simulator

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Abstract

Here, 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,more »« less

Authors:

Garcia, Daniel ^[1];

^[2];

^[3]; Varga, B. O. N. ^[4]; Calo, V. M. ^[5]

Basque Center for Applied Mathematics, (BCAM), Bilbao (Spain); University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU), Leioa (Spain)
American University of Sharjah (AUS), Sharjah (United Arab Emirates)
Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), Thuwal (Saudi Arabia). Earth Science & Engineering
Curtin University, Perth, WA (Australia). Applied Geology Department; Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), Kensington, WA (Australia)

Publication Date:: Wed Mar 14 00:00:00 EDT 2018

Research Org.:: Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)

Sponsoring Org.:: USDOE

OSTI Identifier:: 1435177

Grant/Contract Number:: AC05-00OR22725

Resource Type:: Accepted Manuscript

Journal Name:: Journal of Computational and Applied Mathematics

Additional Journal Information:: Journal Volume: 344; Journal ID: ISSN 0377-0427

Publisher:: Elsevier

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

Subject:: 97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING; Unsteady aerodynamics; Numerical simulations; Mixed-language approach; Potential flow

Citation Formats


                    Garcia, Daniel, Ghommem, M., Collier, Nathaniel O., Varga, B. O. N., and Calo, V. M. PyFly: A fast, portable aerodynamics simulator.  United States: N. p., 2018. 
Web.  doi:10.1016/j.cam.2018.03.003.

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                    Garcia, Daniel, Ghommem, M., Collier, Nathaniel O., Varga, B. O. N., & Calo, V. M. PyFly: A fast, portable aerodynamics simulator.  United States.  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cam.2018.03.003

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                    Garcia, Daniel, Ghommem, M., Collier, Nathaniel O., Varga, B. O. N., and Calo, V. M. Wed .  
"PyFly: A fast, portable aerodynamics simulator".  United States.  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cam.2018.03.003.  https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1435177.

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@article{osti_1435177,

  title        = {PyFly: A fast, portable aerodynamics simulator},

  author       = {Garcia, Daniel and Ghommem, M. and Collier, Nathaniel O. and Varga, B. O. N. and Calo, V. M.},

  abstractNote = {Here, 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. Finally, we simulate different aerodynamic problems to illustrate the usefulness and effectiveness of PyFly.},

  doi          = {10.1016/j.cam.2018.03.003},

  journal      = {Journal of Computational and Applied Mathematics},

  number       = ,

  volume       = 344,

  place        = {United States},

  year         = {Wed Mar 14 00:00:00 EDT 2018},

  month        = {Wed Mar 14 00:00:00 EDT 2018}

}

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