Public Domain Aeronautical Software (PDAS)  

Pablo is a pedagogical low-speed airfoil analysis program written in MATLAB. It uses a one way coupled inviscid + boundary layer model.

The inviscid flow is solved using a Panel Method [1]. Three different kinds of singularity distributions can be used. The boundary layer equations use the inviscid flow velocity provided by the panel method, but the effect of the boundary layer on the inviscid flow is not taken into account, as in Panda [2]. The boundary layer model is described in [3]. It uses Thwaites' equations for the laminar part of the flow, and Head's equations for the turbulent part. Michel's criterion is used to locate transition. The drag coefficient is computed using the Squire-Young formula.

I am including this program with the PDAS collection as there may be someone with an interest in the computational procedure. It used to be maintained by the folks at the Pablo website.

Note added 6 September 2015: The KTH website seems to no longer exist. If you want a copy of the Matlab source code, you may download it from here. This is my copy as of 2004.

Pablo was maintained by

KTH- The Royal Institute of Technology
Department of Aeronautics
Stockholm, Sweden

Pablo was programmed by Christian Wauquiez in 1999. The KTH faculty adviser was Arthur Rizzi (rizzi@flyg.kth.se ).

References

  1. Katz and Plotkin : Low Speed Aerodynamics, From Wing Theory To Panel Methods. McGraw-Hill Inc., 1991. 2nd edition 2001.
  2. Ilan Kroo : PANDA - A Program for Analysis and Design of Airfoils. © Desktop Aeronautics, 1988.
  3. Jack Moran : An introduction to Theoretical and Computational Aerodynamics. John Wiley and sons, 1984. [now available in low-cost Dover edition]
  4. I.H. Abbott and A.E. Von Doenhoff, Theory of wing sections, Dover Publications Inc,  New York, 1959
Public Domain Aeronautical Software (PDAS)