[CfdIntro]

Hi everyone,

• What I'm trying to do:

Import a multi-element airfoil into gmsh for 2d mesh generation.

• What's my issue:

I can't create the proper .dat file that will let me import the geometry I want.

Anyone has experience with importing multi-element airfoils into gmsh? I have no luck so far when I try to create the .dat file of the multi-element airfoil and I don't really know if it's possible to import multi-element airfoils using .dat files. Any hint on how the structure of the .dat file for multi-element airfoils should look like, would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance and I'm looking forward to hearing from you soon.

gmsh version: 3.0.6 - Linux
OS: Ubuntu 17.04

Edit: https://i.imgur.com/1EqdVdN.png <- This is the geometry I'm interested in importing into gmsh.

[louisgag]

Hi CfdIntro and welcome to the forum,

I remember struggling when trying to import an airfoil/wing into Gmsh using external data. I recommend you use the publicly available Gmsh function instead: http://www.geuz.org/pipermail/gmsh/2009/004532.html

Copy it to a file you'll call naca.geo, and then in your Gmsh main .geo file insert something like (adapt to your case!):

NACA4_len_le = clDle ; // decrease to have more points on leading edge
NACA4_len_mp = clDmp ;
NACA4_len_te = clDte ;
NACA4_th = nacaN ;
NACA4_ch = chord ;
curF=1;

NACA4_le_x = oxF[curF] - pAxis ; // origin of foil nose
NACA4_le_y = oyF[curF] ; // origin of foil nose
NACA4_le_z = 0 ; // origin of foil nose

Include "naca.geo" ;
Call NACA4 ;

I use a slightly different version because I want 2D extruded airfoils... But you can probably adapt the script to your needs without too much hassle.

Regards,


-Louis

[CfdIntro]

Originally Posted by louisgag

Hi CfdIntro and welcome to the forum,

I remember struggling when trying to import an airfoil/wing into Gmsh using external data. I recommend you use the publicly available Gmsh function instead: http://www.geuz.org/pipermail/gmsh/2009/004532.html

Copy it to a file you'll call naca.geo, and then in your Gmsh main .geo file insert something like (adapt to your case!):

NACA4_len_le = clDle ; // decrease to have more points on leading edge
NACA4_len_mp = clDmp ;
NACA4_len_te = clDte ;
NACA4_th = nacaN ;
NACA4_ch = chord ;
curF=1;

NACA4_le_x = oxF[curF] - pAxis ; // origin of foil nose
NACA4_le_y = oyF[curF] ; // origin of foil nose
NACA4_le_z = 0 ; // origin of foil nose

Include "naca.geo" ;
Call NACA4 ;

I use a slightly different version because I want 2D extruded airfoils... But you can probably adapt the script to your needs without too much hassle.

Regards,


-Louis

Hi louisgag and thank you for your answer.

My goal is to import this geometry into gmsh:


Do I use the same method you suggested above if I want to create an overlap with two airfoils or is it different?

Thanks in advance!

[louisgag]

I can't see your image... Yes you can create two or more airfoils...
-Louis

[CfdIntro]

Originally Posted by louisgag

I can't see your image... Yes you can create two or more airfoils...
-Louis

https://i.imgur.com/1EqdVdN.png <- This is the geometry I'm interested in creating. Let me know if it is visible to you this time and thanks in advance for your answer.

[louisgag]

Unfortunately no, or at least not out-of-the-box because if you have camber you'll need to modify the NACA4 function, possibly substantially.
If you are in 2D, you may as well import/paste your airfoil points directly in Gmsh as the NACA4_Points object and then proceed similarly to what you see in the Gmsh mailing post from above to create splines between the points.
Good luck,
-Louis

[Flowkersma]

Hi,

I think you should use some other format instead of trying to create a .dat file which as far as I know does not support anything but single element airfoils. You could also generate a simple script which converts your airfoil coordinates to GMSH geo file. I can give you an example if you have a coordinate file in some ascii format.

Regards, Mikko

[CfdIntro]

Originally Posted by Flowkersma

Hi,

I think you should use some other format instead of trying to create a .dat file which as far as I know does not support anything but single element airfoils. You could also generate a simple script which converts your airfoil coordinates to GMSH geo file. I can give you an example if you have a coordinate file in some ascii format.

Regards, Mikko

Hi Flowkersma,

I have the coordinates of the first airfoil as (x1, y1) and the coordinates for the second airfoil as [(x1)+ω, (y1)+ω]. That way I've managed to import the two airfoils into gmsh. But I have no way, as of now, to precisely manipulate the layout of the two airfoils in the mesh.

Do you have any hint (i.e. a sample script) that would let the user go from this layout https://i.imgur.com/u1OGnIi.png (where ω=2), to this https://i.imgur.com/1EqdVdN.png?

Also, I tried to extract the coordinates of an assembly, which consists of two airfoils, from Solidworks16 but I had no luck doing so.

Thanks in advance for your answer and I hope I can hear from you soon.

Edit: Here is a sample of coordinates for an airfoil with flap - http://www.ae.metu.edu.tr/tuncer/ae546/multi/gaw.txt

[Flowkersma]

Hi,

I created a small Python script just for convenience.

# Read the coordinates to two lists
mainCoords = []
flapCoords = []
with open('gaw.txt') as fin:
    fin.readline() # skip header
    fin.readline() # skip header
    for l in fin:
        coords = map(float,l.split())
        mainCoords.append(coords[:2])
        if len(coords) > 2:
            flapCoords.append(coords[2:])

# Create a GMSH file and write the points in GMSH format
with open('multi.geo','w') as fout:
    for i, c in enumerate(mainCoords):
        fout.write('Point (%i) = {%f, %f, 0, 1};\n'%(i+1,c[0],c[1]))
    for i, c in enumerate(flapCoords):
        fout.write('Point (%i) = {%f, %f, 0, 1};\n'%(i+len(mainCoords)+1,c[0],c[1]))

# Create two splines 
    fout.write('Spline (1) = {%s};\n' % ','.join(map(str,range(1,len(mainCoords)+1))))
    fout.write('Spline (2) = {%s};\n' % ','.join(map(str,range(len(mainCoords)+1,len(mainCoords)+len(flapCoords)+1))))

So it opens a file called 'gaw.txt' and creates a file called 'multi.geo' which you can open with GMSH. The geo file contains a script which has the coordinates in gmsh format and also creates two splines which go through the coordinates.

Let me know if it works.

Regards,
Mikko

[CfdIntro]

Originally Posted by Flowkersma

Hi,

I created a small Python script just for convenience.

# Read the coordinates to two lists
mainCoords = []
flapCoords = []
with open('gaw.txt') as fin:
    fin.readline() # skip header
    fin.readline() # skip header
    for l in fin:
        coords = map(float,l.split())
        mainCoords.append(coords[:2])
        if len(coords) > 2:
            flapCoords.append(coords[2:])

# Create a GMSH file and write the points in GMSH format
with open('multi.geo','w') as fout:
    for i, c in enumerate(mainCoords):
        fout.write('Point (%i) = {%f, %f, 0, 1};\n'%(i+1,c[0],c[1]))
    for i, c in enumerate(flapCoords):
        fout.write('Point (%i) = {%f, %f, 0, 1};\n'%(i+len(mainCoords)+1,c[0],c[1]))

# Create two splines 
    fout.write('Spline (1) = {%s};\n' % ','.join(map(str,range(1,len(mainCoords)+1))))
    fout.write('Spline (2) = {%s};\n' % ','.join(map(str,range(len(mainCoords)+1,len(mainCoords)+len(flapCoords)+1))))

So it opens a file called 'gaw.txt' and creates a file called 'multi.geo' which you can open with GMSH. The geo file contains a script which has the coordinates in gmsh format and also creates two splines which go through the coordinates.

Let me know if it works.

Regards,
Mikko

Thank you very much for this script!

I'm getting error though everytime I try to run it.

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "./gmsh.py", line 18, in <module>
    fout.write('Point (%i) = {%f, %f, 0, 1};\n'%(i+1,c[0],c[1]))
IndexError: list index out of range

Do you get the same error, if you try to run it on your system?

Thanks in advance and I'm looking forward to hearing from you soon again.

[Flowkersma]

Hi,

I get no errors. Seems like your coordinate file is different. I attached the file that I used. It is just an example script which works only for this file but you can easily adapt it for other multi-element files.

Regards, Mikko

[CfdIntro]

Originally Posted by Flowkersma

Hi,

I get no errors. Seems like your coordinate file is different. I attached the file that I used. It is just an example script which works only for this file but you can easily adapt it for other multi-element files.

Regards, Mikko

Hi again,

It works great now! The problem was the coordinate file was different. Thanks again for the help

Regards,
Pavlos