APPLIED COMPUTATIONAL AERODYNAMICS TEXT/NOTES

W. H. Mason, whmason@vt.edu
Department of Aerospace and Ocean Engineering
Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University

An electronic version of the class notes for AOE 4114, Applied Computational Aerodynamics. Portions are also used for AOE 4124, Configuration Aerodynamics. Comments are welcome, and in fact encouraged.

This page is now superseded by a textbook from Cambridge University Press, 2015

Some codes are available in FORTRAN. They have very crude user interfaces, the manuals even refer to card input! In most cases, much more modern versions are available.

© 1992,1995 by W.H. Mason

Preface (html)

Volume 1: Foundations and Classical Pre-CFD Methods

• Detailed Table of Contents
• 1. Introduction (pdf)
• 2. Getting Ready for Computational Aerodynamics: Fluid Mechanics Foundations (pdf)
• 3. Computers, Codes, and Engineering (pdf)
• 4. Incompressible Potential Flow Using Panel Methods (pdf) (minus a few copyrighted figures)
• 5. Drag: An Introduction (pdf) (minus a few figures)
• 6. Aerodynamics of 3D Lifting Surfaces through Vortex Lattice Methods (248k pdf, Mar 11, 1998) (minus a few copyrighted figures)
• 7. Applications to Configuration Aerodynamics
• Appendices
  • A. Geometry for Aerodynamicists (pdf)
    
    A library of airfoils for use with the codes is available, either as a Zip file. See Appendix A for the airfoil names associated with each filename.
    
    
  • B. Sources of Experimental Data for Code Validation (pdf)
  • C. Preparation of Written Material (pdf)
  • D. Pre-CFD Computational Aerodynamics Programs (html)
  • E. Utility Codes (html)
  • F. Code and Electronic Information Sources (html)

Volume 2 Applied Computational Fluid Mechanics

• Detailed Table of Contents
• 8. Introduction to Computational Fluid Dynamics (162k pdf file, Mar. 17, 1998)
• 9. Geometry and Grids: Major Considerations in Using CA
• 10. Viscous Flows in Aerodynamics
• 11. Transonic Aerodynamics: Methods and Applications
• 12. Supersonic and Hypersonic Aerodynamics
• 13. CFD: Current Methods, Terminology and Details Required for Use
• 14. Using Computational Aerodynamics: Review and Reinforcement
• Appendices
  • G. Computational Aerodynamics Programs (html)
  • H. Utility Codes (html)

These notes were produced exclusively with Macintosh technology. They were written on Macintosh computers. Word processing was done with FullWrite Professional and WriteNow. Sketches and drawings were done with Canvas. Equations were composed using MathType. Plots and Graphs were made using Kaleidagraph. Computing for examples was carried out using Language Systems FORTRAN running in the Apple Macintosh MPW shell.