>> help xfoil
XFOIL Run XFOIL sequences and return the results
Alex Stoll / 28 February 2012
[A,CL,CD,CM] = XFOIL(X,Y,RE,M,PARAMETER,VALUES) runs XFOIL with the
provided airfoil coordinates (X,Y). These coordinates start at the trailing
edge of the upper surface, trace the upper surface to the leading edge, and
then continue along the lower surface to end at the trailing edge. RE = 0
runs XFOIL inviscidly. PARAMETER is either 'a' for alpha (in degrees) or
'c' for Cl, and VALUES is the value(s) of this parameter to run.
(Regardless of the value of the vector VALUES, the vector actually used is
linspace(min(VALUES),max(VALUES),length(VALUES)).) A, CL, CD, and CM are
vectors of the XFOIL results; if XFOIL does not converge at one of the
parameter values, the corresponding results will either be missing from
these vectors or will be Inf.
GDES\CADD is run on the airfoil to smooth it out, and PANE is run to
repanel it. If this behavior is unwanted, it must be removed/commented out
in this file. Temporary files (script, airfoil coordinates, output, and
polar) are written in C:\ - this behavor can be changed by editing this
file.
For example, [A,CL,CD,CM] = XFOIL(X,Y,1e6,0.3,'a',linspace(-5,5,11)) runs
XFOIL with the provided coordinates X and Y at a Reynolds number of 1e6 and
a Mach number of 0.3 at a sequence of 11 alphas from -5 to 5.
XFOIL(X,Y,RE,M,PARAMETER,VALUES,ID) suffixes the value of ID to the ends of
the file names of all the temporary files written in this function. This is
useful when running it in parallel, so that the same temporary files are
not attempted to be written to simultaneously. ID can be an integer, float,
or string.
XFOIL(AIRFOIL,RE,M,PARAMETER,VALUES) uses the airfoil file in the string
AIRFOIL instead of explicitly providing coordinates.
XFOIL(AIRFOIL,RE,M,PARAMETER,VALUES,ID) uses the airfoil file in the string
AIRFOIL and suffixes the value of ID to the filenames of the temporary
files.
For example, [A,CL,CD,CM] = XFOIL('n0012.dat',0,0.5,'c',0) runs the airfoil
file 'n0012.dat' inviscidly at Mach 0.5 at Cl = 0 to find the zero-lift
angle of attack (in degrees).
This script works on Windows. Does it work on other operating systems? Heck
if I know. I imagine you will at least have to change the "C:\" part.
Download xfoil.mSee an example XFOIL input file written by this script