Welcome to PyTornado’s documentation!

Introduction

PyTornado is an implementation of the Vortex Lattice Method (VLM). The VLM, based on potential flow theory, is the simplest general method for 3D aerodynamic analyses of aircraft. The method requires only a coarse definition of the aircraft geometry and the flight state. Due to the few input parameters analyses can be set up with little effort. VLM analyses are computationally inexpensive. PyTornado is an ideal tool for conceptual aircraft design. Short computation times make it possible to easily obtain estimates of aerodynamic loads and to benchmark different concepts.

For simpler analyses PyTornado provides a simple command line interface. More complex analyses can be setup using the flexible Python API. The aircraft geometry can be defined in a JSON file format or with the CPACS format which has been developed by the German Aerospace Centre (DLR). PyTornado also provides an API to model deformed wings. This makes it possible to perform static aeroelastic analyses.

Fig. 1 Aircraft modelled as an assembly of lifting surfaces. The different colors indicate different pressure levels on the wings.

User guide

• Installation
  • Prerequisites
  • User installation
  • Basic requirements
  • Optional requirements
• Getting started
  • Troubleshooting
• User guide
  • Project directory
  • The command line interface
  • Input files
  • Output files
  • Using PyTornado’s Python API
• Tutorials
  • On file formats
  • PyTornado interfaces
  • Advanced analyes
• Limitations

Theory

• Introduction
• Coordinate systems
  • Body-fixed coordinate system
  • Aerodynamic coordinate system
• Loads and coefficients

Links

• References
  • Theoretical background
  • Publications referencing PyTornado
  • Other references
• Related projects

Contributing

• Contributing

Changelog

• Changelog

Developer documentation

• General remarks
• Conventions
• Geometry
• Meshing
• Flow tangency condition
• Deformation API
• Module descriptions

Licence information

PyTornado is developed at Airinnova AB, Stockholm.

Authors:Alessandro Gastaldi, Aaron Dettmann Licence:Apache-2.0