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Tutorial on OpenVSP 3.13.

2,
an introduction to aircraft parametric 3D modelling
From scratch
Congratulations! If you are reading
this means that you probably
succeeded downloading and
extracting the OpenVSP folder.
No installation is needed. To open the
program, click on vsp.exe
Along with the program GUI, a black
window will appear. Neglect it, and
never close it.
Now we can see the main window
open. Also one of the model editor
windows, the Geometry Browser,
appears open by default. This editing
window is also available under the
tabs Model>Geometry
The main feature of this program is
that we can create an entire aircraft
using relatively simple, parametric,
pre-defined components. To have a
look at the available components, click
on the deployable list next to Add.
The default components are in capital
letters. However, in the lower part of
the list you can find other custom-
made components, defined with
scripts that control the relationship
between their own parameters.
Lets try and insert a FUSELAGE
component. A new editing window for
this component also appears.
Notice the axes orientation. It is
extremely important being aware of
the axes definition in every CAD and
analysis tool we use. This is a common
source of numerical mistakes and
misunderstandings.
Note also that the new component has
been added starting (with its
attaching point) exactly at the origin
of coordinates.
In aircraft modelling, there is no
universal agreement on where should
be the origin of coordinates. It usually
depends on the discipline being
studied. Common locations are the
nose of the fuselage, the CG, or a
defined point some distance before
the fuselage nose. However, OpenVSP
allows us to create and handle
multiple coordinate systems.
Play around a bit with the different
tabs and parameters of the new
Fuselage editing window.
You can see that the different
parameters that control the location,
position, size and shape of the
component are organized in different
tabs.
Play around a bit more. Change
various parameters to see how they
work. For example, change the overall
length, the type of various sections (in
the picture,
ROUNDED_RECTANGLE is used),
or the height (Z component) of
different sections.
All parameters available allow a
tremendous flexibility. We can easily
represent almost any aircraft fuselage.
Now lets add a WING component.
It also appears at the origin of
coordinates, but we can move it using
the coordinates in the Xform tab.
Have a look at the parameters
available in the different tabs. We can
change the general wing planform
(Plan), the wing sections (Sect),
the airfoils for each section (Airfoil),
among many others.
At the same time, we get accurate
information of the design: parameters
like area, projected span, aspect ratio
or chord length are automatically
calculated for us. With a pen and
paper approach, it would taken more
time.
Play around and modify the wing. For
example, split the current section into
two, and change the root chord.
Try changing other parameters as you
like. As you might notice, it is
important to know the original
equations to understand how different
parameters affect each other.
If we look back to the Geom
browser, we will see that the wing
component was added as a child of
the fuselage component (depending if
you had the Fuselage selected when
you first added the WING
component). In this case, the wing is
now attached to its parent
component, and takes its location
relative to the parents attachment
point. This means that the child will
move if the parent moves.
Lets change this and make them
components at the same level, in the
absolute reference system.
Select the WingGeom component
and click on Cut. Now select the top
level Vehicle. Finally, click on
Paste. You should get you wing back
intact.
Now, lets add a horizontal tail. You
will see that there is no tail or
stabilizator component. This is just
because both the horizontal and
vertical tail can be modelled as a
wing (arent they?).
Click on Vehicle, add a new WING
component at the top level, and
modify its position until you place it in
a more conventional place of the
fuselage (creativity is also welcome!
but you will need to prove that it can
actually fly ;-) )
Change its size and shape as you wish.
It would be nice to use a symmetrical
airfoil for the moment.
Now, lets add the vertical tail in a
similar way.
But, wait, how to get only half? Easy!
We just need to remove the symmetry
by unclicking the XZ planar
symmetry under the Xform tab.
Symmetry is a very powerful tool to
save a lot of time in modelling.
Remember that many parts of the
aircraft are symmetrical.
And how to make it vertical? We just
rotate it. In this case, we need a
rotation of 90 degrees around the X
axis.
You can continue modifying your
aircraft and modelling other parts,
such as engines, pods, undercarriage,
pilots there is always a way to
modify the given components until
you achieve the shape you want.
If not, you can always write a custom
script and make a new component!
A bit more advanced
Click on File>Open and select the
Transport.vsp3 file. It should be
inside the models folder.
This is a model of a generic transport
aircraft made by Rob McDonald, one
of the OpenVSP developers. It does
not represent any particular aircraft.
We will use this model to explore
some more advanced features and
tools.
First, lets observe the orientation of
the coordinate system and the origin
of coordinates.
If you wish to rotate the view around a
different point, you can do that by
setting a new rotation centre:
View>Set Rotation Center.
Then, lets have a look at how the
components have been ordered in
different levels. You can Show or
NoShow(hide) some of them to have
a look at how the model is built.
Now, we are going to have a look at a
different way of grouping
components: we can create families or
Sets of components, independently
of how they are organized in the
Geom Browser.
Click on one component, for example
the wing, and hava a look at the Gen
tab. In the lower part, you will see that
this component belongs to the sets
Shown(since it is visible right now),
Flowthrough, and PowerFace.
This is done as a quick way of
selecting what component or group of
components we want to be active for
certain task.
For example, if we select the set
Propulsion in the Geom Browser
and we click on Show Only, we will
make visible only the components
related with the aircraft propulsion.
This could be useful, for example, to
do the opposite and hide the
propulsion components when we are
interested in doing an aerodynamic
analysis with only the clean
geometry of the aircraft.
In the same way, this model has the
PowerFace and Flowthrough sets
to perform aerodynamic analysis with
and without the nacelles obstructed,
respectively.
Show all the components again (Sel
All and Show), and have a detailed
look at how each one of the
components have been modelled. This
will give you a good idea of how to
model your aircraft later on.
Note that the fuselage used here is
actually not the default FUSELAGE
component, but a custom component
called TransportFuse. Look at the
parameters available for this
component. Simple, eh?
The work of creating a fuselage with
only such small amount of user-
defined parameters is done behind
closed doors lets have a look
Go back to the program directory and
enter the folder called
CustomScripts
Select the file called
TransportFuse.vsppart and open it,
for example with Notepad.
You can have a look now at how the
entire fuselage shape is constructed by
a set of user-defined parameters. The
relationships between them and the
geometry are defined here.
In the same way, you can create or
modify any custom component, so the
possibilities are almost endless.
Lets go back to the display window.
Click on the menu tab called Model.
Then click on Link
This window lets you link parameters,
or even groups of parameters
together. Then, changing one
parameter will affect other parameters
in a pre-defined way. It is similar to
the script from before, but here acting
on any parameter of any component.
Advanced links are possible through
the window Adv Link
This model doesnt have any
parameter linked, and we dont need
this functionality just now. But feel
free to experiment with your model!
Now its the time to see what kind of
analysis we can do with this (low-mid
fidelity) outer shell of the aircraft.
Open again a clean version of the
Transport.vsp3 aircraft to discard any
changes you might have done.
Now click the tab Analysis, and lets
check the first one: CompGeom.
As the title suggests, this tool
computes the geometry and creates an
external mesh, intersecting and
trimming the components.
Now is when we start to use the sets:
Go ahead and select the set
Flowthrough to remove the blockage
of the nacelles.
Leave the other options like they are,
and click on Execute.
An overall mesh component
MeshGeom is created. Inside the
window you can read the results of the
computation: theoretical and wetted
area of the different components, as
well as theoretical and wetted volume.
These data has also been saved in .txt,
.csv, and .tsv formats in the folder
where the model is stored (go and
check!)
This tool has just made much easier
for us to find out what are the wetted
areas of the aircraft. These are
essential for drag estimation!
Back to the Geom Browser, select
the mesh, change its name (under the
window Active:), hide it, and show
again all the previous components.
Now lets check the tool Mass Prop...
(mass properties). Open it and, this
time, select the set Shown (this set
will take into account all components
that are currently shown in the model
browser).
Select also the option Draw Cg, and
increase the number of slices to 80.
Click on Compute and wait for it to
finish.
This tool has also created a new mesh
and a .txt file with results. Some of
these results are shown directly in the
window.
Wait, but what has happened? We
have cut the entire aircraft volume
into 80 slices and we have assumed an
homogeneous material distribution.
These slices have been integrated to
find the position of the centre of mass
and the moments/products of inertia.
But then, why are the values so low?
Well, that depends on the density we
assign to each component! In the
Gen tab of each component, we can
assign a Density and declare if the
component is a Thin Shell.
Same again: back to the Geom
Browser, select the mesh, change its
name, hide it, and show all the
previous components.
Now we are going to have a look at
how we can transform the 3D
parametric geometry into other
Surface Plate
simpler forms, based on coordinates
or cloud of points.
The purpose is to use the geometry in
other codes, for example, with
aerodynamic or structural analysis
codes that work with panels, lines or
points.
This process is usually called to
degenerate a geometry.
Sticks/Points
Click on Analysis>DegenGeom
In this case, we are going to select the
set All.
Click Execute. As you can see, the
output will be written into two files in
format .csv and .m respectively.
This means that, for example, we can
now read the .m file in Matlab and
integrate it in our own custom
program.
However, the resolution at which the
geometry is exported depends on our
current setting in the 3D model: the
Tesselation parameter.
Go back to the Geom Browser, select
a component, for example the
fuselage. In the Gen tab you will find
the Tesselation parameters that
define how many interpolations, or
sections, we want in our model. This
is, the grid size.
Experiment a bit changing this
parameters, and see how the model
shapes are affected.
Of course, the larger number of
interpolations, the heavier that the
model will become, and the slower the
analyses will be!
Leave the tessellation parameters as
they were originally (or re-open the
model again).
Now we will start with basic
aerodynamic computations:
estimating the parasite drag (also
known as zero-lift drag).
Open the tool Analysis>Parasite
Drag
Fist of all, lets try to understand what
are all these parameters: click on the
tab Documentation
Read the list of parameters and their
descriptions.
After that, click just below, in the
Link to Complete Wiki Parasite Drag
Documentation. A webpage will
open. You will find extended
information about how the
estimations are done, read it!
Its normal that some concepts are
still unclear: at this point probably
you dont know much about
aerodynamics (yet). Dont worry!
Select the geometry set Flowthrough
Set the Model Length Unit to m
In Equation Selection, leave the
Laminar as it is (Blasius) and set the
turbulent one to Schlichting-
Prandtl. You will learn more about
these skin-friction coefficient
equations in Aerodynamics courses.
Since we are going to work with
coefficients, we need a reference area
to nondimensionalize our parameters.
In conventional aircraft, we
commonly use the area of the main
wing. This is easy in OpenVSP: In
Reference Area, click on From
Model, and then select the wing
component (4_Wing). Done!
In Flow Condition, we will use the
US Standard Atmosphere 1976,
which by now you should know pretty
well. However, we will change all units
into International System (SI) units.
Set a Vinf (airspeed) of 200 m/s at
an altitude of 8000 m.
On the right, we will let the program
take the wetted areas directly from the
components instead of writing them
manually.
Change the form-factor (FF)
equation of the nacelle component to
Jenkinson Wing Mounted Nacelle.
Before we execute the tool, we will
add manually some extra drag to
account for additional factors that are
not captured in our relatively simple
model: think on windows, rivets, dirt,
antennas, gaps between control
surfaces and also the interference
between the different components!
All these increase significantly the
parasite drag.
There are various methods for
accounting this factors, but here we
will keep it simple: we will just
increase the computed parasite drag
by a defined percentage.
Leave the rest as it is by default and
click on the Excrescence tab.
Click on Type and select
% of CD_Geom.
Then click on Add Excrescence
Now, in the field Value set 10.0
You will see the 10 % of excrescence
drag added to the drag breakdown on
the right.
Now we are finally ready to execute.
Click on Calculate CDO in the lower
left corner.
Wait for the analysis to be completed.
You should get the same results as
shown in the image, with a total
parasite drag coefficient (C_D)
of 0.01884
You can also click on % Total on the
right upper corner to get the
component drag breakdown ordered
by the contribution to the total drag,
from highest to lowest.
Observe carefully all these results,
they are typical drag values for a
conventional jet transport aircraft.
Close the drag window, and get back
to the model. We will perform one last
analysis: estimation of basic
aerodynamic characteristics using a
fast vortex lattice tool called
VSPAERO.
First of all, make sure that your model
is identic to the original, or re-open
the Transport.vsp3 file.
We are going to simplify a bit more
our geometry so the computation
doesnt take too long: hide everything
except the Fuselage, Htail, Vtail and
Wing (GearPod, Pylon, Nacelle and
PowerFace should not be visible).
Select the fuselage and lower the
tessellation to the values shown here.
Now select the wing and lower the
Num_W tessellation value to 25.
Do the same with the Htail and the
Vtail: Num_W to 25 in each one of
them.
We are ready to start:
Click on Analysis>VSPAERO and
this window will appear.
Now lets set up a simple case.
We will use the Vortex Lattice
Method (VLM), already selected.
Select the Geometry Set Shown. You
can preview the degenerated geometry
by clicking in the button just below.
As we did before, take the reference
areas and lengths directly from the
main wing of the model (From
Model > 4_Wing)
Instead of calculating the CG now, we
are going to assume that it is already
located at the origin of coordinates.
Therefore, we leave Xref, Yref and
Zref at 0.000
Set Alpha Start to 0.0 and End to
8.0; Npts should be 3.
Leave everything else as it is by
default, and click on Launch Solver
at the bottom of the window.
The Results Manager window will
open instantly. For the moment, it will
remain blank until the solver is
finished. In the VSPAERO window
you can follow the solver operations
by looking to the console in the lower
part of the window.
Wait until its finished. It can take
some minutes, depending on your
computer.
It shouldnt crash, but if it does, look
at the following page.
If the solver gets stuck or the program
crashes, it is probably because of a
failure in the geometry. If we have the
bad luck that the intersection between
two components creates some bad
panels, the solver will get numerical
errors when it tries to solve them.
Therefore it is important to keep the
geometry as clean as possible and to
remove any unnecessary components.
To solve this problem, kill the
solver, close VSPAERO, and go back
to your model. Change (or reduce) the
tessellation of the components
(fuselage is usually a problematic
one), and try to launch VSPAERO
again. Repeat until you succeed.
Once it finishes, the Results
Manager will display the results for
the 3 different conditions we have
simulated (Alpha = 0, 4 and 8).
First of all, lets have a look at the
Convergence tab. Here we can
observe how the results have evolved
in each one of the iterations (in this
case, 5 iterations for each one of the
conditions). To consider a solution as
good, we should observe some sort
of convergence towards a stable value.
Observe the convergence of the L/D
parameter. The graphs shows its
logarithm to appreciate better its
behaviour. In any case, we dont need
to care much about it in this lab.
Click on the tab Load Dist. (load
distribution).
If its not selected yet, select the Y-
Data field corresponding with
cl*c/cref (normalized lift
coefficient).
Observe the different lift distribution
curves along the main wing (the
longest line) and the horizontal tail
(the shorter line).
These curves are very important! Try
to understand them. Note the negative
effect that the fuselage has in the lift
distribution.
In the tab Sweep we can choose
what parameters to compare.
Choose Alpha in X-Data and CL
in Y-Data. You should see
something like in this picture. Only
with three points, we can already see
the lift curve of the entire aircraft (yes,
the entire aircraft, not only the wing,
or the 2D-aerofoil).
If now we change the X-Data to
Cdtot (total drag coefficient) it
appears something like in this picture.
What you see is a small portion (we
only tested 3 points) of the aircraft
drag polar, a very important
performance index.
Now lets launch the Viewer:
Click on Launch Viewer at the
bottom of the VSPAERO window.
A new window will open.
In this window you can rotate and
navigate in a similar way to that of the
main model browser. The geometry
you see here is the degenerated
geometry that the Vortex Lattice
solver has worked with.
Click on the tab Aero and select the
following options: Delta-CP (show
the pressure coefficient),
Computational Mesh (show the
panels), and Trailing Wakes (show
the flow wakes behind the aircraft).
Browse through the three cases we
solved by using the buttons on the
top-right corner.
Explore the results on your own.
Check the different visualization
options.
Check the Alpha = 8 deg case.
Look at the flow between the main
wing and the horizontal tail: what
happens?
Lastly, check the new files that have
been created in the model directory.
Apart from two of them that are
binary (.adb and .adb.cases), the rest
can be opened with MS Notepad, for
example.
Open these files and have a look at the
numerical results. What are each of
these values representing?
It seems that we got quite a lot of
information from a simple outer-shell
model of the aircraft. Since the model
is fully parametric, we can change any
parameters and run the analysis
again. Think about how useful this is
during the conceptual design of an
aircraft!
Model the geometry of the aircraft that has been assigned to you. Use the
database provided in the course and three-view-drawings of the aircraft.
When you are done, perform on it the following analyses:
- Parasite drag estimation
- Aerodynamic study using Vortex-Lattice
Use in both cases the exact same conditions and settings of the example.

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