Some useful list of commands in XFOIL

1) Loading an Airfoil

 To load NACA airfoil

Eg: XFOIL c> NACA 2412

 Some airfoil other than NACA

Notice that Xfoil will return some of the specifications for the airfoil, including the location and
magnitude of the maximum thickness, maximum camber, and other parameters.

2) Setting the number of panels

 This step is to ensure the airfoil has a decent number of panels to work on and does not
have a very coarse distribution of panels.
 XFOIL c> ppar
 XFOIL c> n
 XFOIL c> 240

When you want to come out of the current level that you are in, press Enter.

3) The OPER Sub-Level

XFOIL c> OPER

This will produce the prompt

.OPERi c>

Type a “?" to see a list of available commands and a brief description of their use. This works on any
level of XFoil.

In the OPER level this is what you will see after typing “?”

<cr> Return to Top Level

! Redo last ALFA,CLI,CL,ASEQ,CSEQ,VELS

Visc r Toggle Inviscid/Viscous mode

Re r Change Reynolds number

Mach r Change Mach number

Type i Change type of Mach,Re variation with CL

ITER Change viscous-solution iteration limit

INIT Toggle BL initialization flag

Alfa r Prescribe alpha

CLI r Prescribe inviscid CL

Cl r Prescribe CL

ASeq rrr Prescribe a sequence of alphas

CSeq rrr Prescribe a sequence of CLs

SEQP Toggle polar/Cp(x) sequence plot display

CINC Toggle minimum Cp inclusion in polar

HINC Toggle hinge moment inclusion in polar

Pacc i Toggle auto point accumulation to active polar

PGET f Read new polar from save file

PWRT i Write polar to save file

PSUM Show summary of stored polars

PLIS i List stored polar(s)

PDEL i Delete stored polar

PSOR i Sort stored polar

PPlo ii. Plot stored polar(s)

APlo ii. Plot stored airfoil(s) for each polar

ASET i Copy stored airfoil into current airfoil

PREM ir. Remove point(s) from stored polar

PPAX Change polar plot axis limits

RGET f Read new reference polar from file

RDEL i Delete stored reference polar

GRID Toggle Cp vs x grid overlay

CREF Toggle reference Cp data overlay

CPx Plot Cp vs x

CPV Plot airfoil with pressure vectors (gee wiz)

.VPlo BL variable plots

.ANNO Annotate current plot

HARD Hardcopy current plot

SIZE r Change plot-object size

CPMI r Change minimum Cp axis annotation

BL i Plot boundary layer velocity profiles

BLC Plot boundary layer velocity profiles at cursor

BLWT r Change velocity profile scale weight

FMOM Calculate flap hinge moment and forces

FNEW rr Set new flap hinge point

VELS rr Calculate velocity components at a point

DUMP f Output Ue,Dstar,Theta,Cf vs s,x,y to file

CPWR f Output x vs Cp to file

CPMN Report minimum surface Cp

NAME s Specify new airfoil name

NINC Increment name version number

Notice that there are three columns, the first is the command, the second one gives an
indication of other inputs the command needs. An " r " means that the command expects a real
number, an " i " means that the command expects an integer, an " f " means that the command
expects a filename, and an " s " that the command expects a string. If the input is not typed after
the command, Xfoil will prompt the user.

4) Viscous Mode
------------

Always start the viscous analysis at a good angle of attack. By good I mean, a small positive angle
of attack, which does not show any convergence issues. It is always good practice to start at 0 or
2 degrees. I know you might have to analyse even for negative angle of attack but you will see
how it is done.

However, before you even run the session create a polar file to save your data.
Type

.OPERi c> visc

This command will turn on the viscous mode. XFoil then prompts the user to input a Reynolds
number. Notice that a “v” will now appear next to “OPER” in the prompt to indicate viscous flow.
.OPERv c> pacc

Enter filename, for example: n2412.pol.

Remember to save it with the extension ‘.pol’

Just press enter for the dump filename – you do not need to save that.

Change the iteration limit to 70

Run it for an angle of attack first

Now do it for a sequence of angle of attack

Enter your first alpha, last alpha and incremental alpha (of around 0.2). See if it is converged at the
last angle of attack you specified.

This is how it would look when it is converged at all angles of attack that you specified and all this
would be written to your polar file. However, as I said, we need to do for negative angles of attack as
well. Therefore, we have to initialize our BL parameters such that XFOIL can run for a lower angle of
attack immediately after running for a high angle of attack.

To initialize, do the following

..VPAR c> init

Here it will say BLs will be initialized to next point.

Press Enter to come out of VPAR and run it for a low alpha (say 2 degrees) and then run it for
sequence of negative angles of attack. Remember to give increments as (-0.1 or -0.15) because you
want for lower range of alphas.
.OPERva c> alfa 2

.OPERva c> aseq

Once that is done, it would show something like this

You basically have all the data that you need to analyse for your lab reports. Take your .pol file, read
it in MATLAB, and compare it with experimental data.

If something in the above is not clear, ask me. You need to have an understanding of this to analyse
Lab 3 results.

BELOW IS JUST FOR YOUR INFORMATION IF YOU WANT TO USE XFOIL IN FUTURE

Once you have generated your .pol file, exit xfoil and type pplot.
It shows all these options. To activate an option, type the number next to it. So if you want to read
polars type 1. Enter your polar data filename (if you have more than 1, just enter those names as it
keeps prompting)

When you are finished press Enter and a new plot window should pop up which shows the drag
polar, Cl-alpha curve and transition curves. To get a copy of this plot, choose Option 4, which saves it
as a postscript file (.ps). To change scaling of your axes, use Option 5.

This part is for your understanding as to how XFOIL data can be obtained using pplot. This is not
required for your MAE 253 Lab reports.

If there is anything else you want to know, we can always talk.