MultiElement Airfoils uses two solvers to meet your design needs. First, a linear strength vortex panel method is used for fast potential flow solutions. Secondly, the compressible Euler equations are solved using a cartesian grid for transonic and supersonic flow solutions. The program solves the boundary layer equations to compute profile drag and to determine the location of the transition and separation points for each airfoil in the flow field. MultiElement Airfoils also uses a stall model based on the separation points locations to account for reduction in the lift prior to airfoil stall. Consequently, it can be used to  rapidly and accurately model many aircraft, marine and automobile flow scenarios on an ordinary Windows based PC or notebook computer.

In addition to its aerodynamics capabilities, MultiElement Airfoils is also an excellent reference and educational resource. Its airfoil library contains NACA 4, 5 & 6-digit airfoils, the entire UIUC airfoil database and the ability to import custom airfoils. It is an interactive alternative to textbooks, handbooks, internet research, differential equations solutions and error prone "pencil and paper" calculations. Students at universities, high schools and elementary schools can use MultiElement Airfoils as a virtual lab to investigate many real world problems in science and engineering.  The software can export airfoils and airfoil combinations to .DXF files. It can accurately plot airfoil templates for use in model airplane construction.

Interactive Airfoil Editor

If the physics behind MultiElement Airfoils is familiar to many engineers and aerodynamics student, the user interface will be intuitive. Airfoils can be entered into the flow simply by double clicking on the interactive Interactive AirfoilEditor™ window and then dragged to the desired location. Graphs for surface pressure coefficient, velocity ratio and the lift-drag polar can also be generated and modified with a few clicks of the mouse. A pop-up dialog box allows users to select from NACA 4, 5 & 6-digit airfoils, the UIUC airfoil database library or their own custom shapes. Airfoils can be rotated to any independent angle, scaled, flipped or given a number of attributes to facilitate the solution or flow visualization. Airfoils already in the flow field can be edited or deleted by double-clicking on the shapes.

Interactive Airfoil Editor showing Mast-Sail Model. The Airfoil Editor Tools can be used to drag airfoils around in the flow field. This eliminates the time-wasting process of entering new coordinates even for small changes in airfoil locations.

Airfoil Selection

You are not required to become an airfoil development expert to use MultiElements Airfoils. The airfoil selection dialog box is a point and click utility that automatically generates NACA 4-, 5- and 6-digit airfoils. You can also use it to access the over 1000 airfoils in the UIUC airfoil data base or read-in your own custom airfoils from an ASCII file.

Airfoil Selection Dialog Box. Here you can select thousands of airfoils including NACA 4-, 5- and 6-Digit shapes.

Graphing

MultiElement Airfoils produces graphs of the surface pressure coefficient and velocity ratio for each airfoil. It can also graph the lift, drag and moment coefficients versus angle of attack and the lift-drag polar for a complete array of airfoils. A screen copy of the graphs can be printed, saved as bitmap files (.bmp) or copied to the clipboard and pasted into any MS Windows application. MultiElement Airfoils can also produce a table of results at each angle of attack which can be printed or saved on disk.

Multi-element airfoil graphs showing flow field and surface pressure coefficient.

Summary of Features
MultiElement Airfoils enables you to:

• Position and analyze up to 20 airfoils in a single computation.
• Transonic and supersonic flow analysis (new in 3.0) using new CFD methods.
• Read in the coordinates of your custom airfoil that you designed specifically for your general aviation airplane, rudder, spoiler or propeller. The program can compute and compare its performance with the other airfoils in the database, plot the shape or export it to a .DXF file.
• Generate all NACA 4-Digit and 4-Digit Modified Airfoils. With the NACA generator, you can set the thickness, camber location and magnitude. You can create numerous airfoils for testing and experimentation.
• Generate the NACA 5-Digit family of airfoils.Create NACA 210XX, 220XX, 23XXX, 240XX, 250XX, NACA 211XX, 221XX, 231XX, 241XX and 251XX series airfoils. This generator gives you a different family of airfoil for experimentation.
• Generate NACA 6-Digit family of airfoils. With the NACA generator, you can select and generate NACA 63-XXX, 64-XXX, 65-XXX, 66-XXX, 63AXXX, 64AXXX, 65AXXX airfoils.
• Analyze any of the airfoil in the UIUC airfoil database. The database contains Selig, SD, MH and Eppler airfoils amongst others.
• Compute lift, drag and moment coefficients at your specific angle of attack. See how the airfoils perform when you vary the angle of attack.
• Compute profile drag coefficient at your specific angle of attack. The profile drag is a combination of the friction and pressure drag. The profile drag depends on Reynolds number and whether or not the flow is laminar or turbulent. Use MultiElement Airfoils to see how the location of the transition point affects the drag.
• Estimate vehicle's lift and profile drag based on wing dimensions, fluid (water or air) and velocity.
• Estimate stall angle of attack. MultiElement Airfoils uses a formula based on theory and real life experiments to determine the stall angle of attack.
• Estimate lift coefficient near the stall point (prior to stall). The above formula is also used with the computed lift to determine the reduction in lift close to stall.
• Generate lift and drag polar graphs. These curves show which airfoil can produce your required lift but have the least amount of drag. Plot multiple curves to compare many airfoils.
• Generate lift versus angle of attack graphs. Use this graph to quickly determine the angle for producing your required lift.
• Plot streamlines over the airfoil - you can copy plots to paste in your reports.
• Plot pressure distribution contours in the flow field - you can also copy these plot to paste in your report.
• Export  single airfoils to .DXF file for use in a CAD program.
• Export single airfoil coordinates to ASCII file.
• Plot single airfoils to any dimension using your windows support printer.  This is useful for constructing plans for building wings and hydrofoils.
• Copy  a high resolution screen shot of all your graphs for inclusion in your reports and presentations.
• Print Tables and Graphs.
• Free technical support for one year after purchase.

Please click here for more information about MultiElement Airfoils.

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