An inadequate introduction to AVL

04 February 2018 14:34

Some of AVL capabilities

- Model lifting surfaces and slender bodies using singularities - horseshoe vortices, source+doublet
lines.
- Account for control deflections.
- Calculate trim condition for level and banked flight.
- Estimate aerodynamic forces and moments, and their derivatives.

Flow is assumed to be quasi-steady.

The analysis must be restricted to the subsonic regime.

Prandtl-Glauert approximation holds till M = 0.6. Beyond that the results are unreliable.

Coordinate system used for geometry definition

X downstream
Y out of the right wing
Z up

Configuration File ( ___.avl )

Header
A line can be commented using "#" or "!"

Case name
0.0 Mach number
1 0 0 iYsym iZsym Zsym
4.0 0.4 0.1 Sref Cref Bref
0.1 0.0 0.0 Xref Yref Zref
0.017 CD0 (optional)

Mach = default freestream Mach number for Prandtl-Glauert correction

iYsym = 1 if flow is symmetric about Y=0, (X-Z plane is a solid wall)

= -1 if flow is antisymmetric about Y=0, (X-Z plane is at const. Cp)
= 0 no Y-symmetry is assumed

iZsym = 1 if flow is symmetric about Z=Zsym, (X-Y plane is a solid wall)

= -1 if flow is antisymmetric about Z=Zsym, (X-Y plane is at const. Cp)
= 0 no Z-symmetry is assumed (Zsym ignored)

Only the half (non-image) geometry must be input if symmetry is specified.

Ground effect is simulated with iZsym = 1, and Zsym = location of ground.

Hierarchy of keywords in the configuration file

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SURFACE ! For defining geometries where vortex lattices are populated
COMPONENT ! For grouping multiple surfaces together.
YDUPLICATE ! For surfaces that are mirror about the xz-plane.
SCALE ! For scaling all components of a surface.
TRANSLATE ! For translating all components of a surface.
ANGLE ! For setting an offset incidence angle for all components of a surface.
CDCL ! For specifying the 𝐶 vs 𝐶 profile for all the sections of a surface.

SECTION ! For defining af section camber line at some span-wise location on the
surface.
NACA ! For picking a 4-digit af.
AFILE ! For appending af coordinates dat file.
CDCL ! For specifying the profile drag CD(CL) for a section.
CONTROL ! For defining the control surfaces.

Typical usage

SURFACE
Wing
6 1.0 30 -1.5
no. of chord-wise chord-wise no. of span-wise span-wise
h.shoe vortices spacing parameter h.shoe vortices spacing parameter

SECTION
0.0 0.0 0.0 0.32 0.0 7 1.0
Xle Yle Zle chord incidence angle no. of span-wise span-wise
vortices till next spacing until
section (optional) next section
(optional)
CONTROL
elevator 1 0.6 0 0 0 1
name gain Xhinge XYZvec SgnDup

name name of control variable

gain control deflection gain, units: degrees deflection / control variable
Xhinge x/c location of hinge.
If positive, control surface extent is Xhinge..1 (TE surface)
If negative, control surface extent is 0..-Xhinge (LE surface)
XYZhvec vector giving hinge axis about which surface rotates
+ deflection is + rotation about hinge vector by righthand rule
Specifying XYZhvec = 0. 0. 0. puts the hinge vector along the hinge
SgnDup sign of deflection for duplicated surface
An elevator would have SgnDup = +1
An aileron would have SgnDup = -1

Spacing parameter

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Spacing parameter
3.0 2.0 1.0 0.0 -1.0 -2.0 -3.0
equal sine cosine equal cosine -sine equal

Any number in [-3,3] can be picked. The spacing distributions can be proportionally mixed.
For e.g. 1.5 would emulate equal parts sine and cosine spacing.

Notes
- There is a subtle difference between iYsym and YDUPLICATE. The former creates an aerodynamic
mirror image, while the latter creates a geometric mirror image. iYsym = 1 implies that sideslip is
non-existent. YDUPLICATE can be used only if iYsym = 0.
- Sections should be ordered from left to right across the span (root to tip for the right wing) (this
yields positive circulation along the y-axis). For the vertical tail, top to bottom is convenient (this
yields positive yaw moment along the z-axis)
- If airfoil is not specified, flat plate is assumed.
- Warping of the entire wing can be allowed by setting Xhinge to 0.
- It is crucial to check for spurious white spaces generated by unnecessary usages of Tab, Space and
Enter keys. Avoid the use of Tab at all costs. AVL throws exceptions at times.

Mass file ( ___.mass)

Describes the mass and inertia properties of the plane.
It also describes the units to be used for all the analysis within AVL.
Appropriate conversion factors have to be used if the units in the configuration file and the intended
units for the analysis differ.

Case name
Lunit = 1 m
Munit = 1 kg
Tunit = 1.0 s
g = 9.806
rho = 1.225
# mass x y z Ix Iy Iz Ixy Ixz Iyz
1.99 0.11555 0.0 0.0 0.3782 0.2963 0.6552 0.0 0.0175 0.0

Reference
All the content has been adapted from the official documentation of AVL posted on the following
website
http://web.mit.edu/drela/Public/web/avl/
The readers are strongly encouraged to go through the documentation if they wish to familiarize
themselves with the full functionality of AVL.

Purnanand Elango
04/02/2018

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