Airfoil Aerodynamics Using Panel Methods

Abstract

Potential flow over an airfoil plays an important historical role in the theory of flight. The governing equation for potential flow is Laplace’s equation, a widely studied linear partial differential equation. One of Green’s identities can be used to write a solution to Laplace’s equation as a boundary integral. Numerical models based on this approach are known as panel methods in the aerodynamics community. This article introduces the availability of a collection of computational tools for con- structing numerical models for potential flow over an airfoil based on panel methods. Use of the software is illustrated by implementing a spe- cific model using vortex panels of linearly varying strength to compute the flow over a member of the NACA four-digit family of airfoils.