Department of Mechanical Engineering

Faculty of Engineering

ME3610 - Design of Mechatronics Systems

XFLR5 Introduction Tutorial

1. XFLR5 Overview
XFLR5 is a useful tool for analysing the aerodynamic behaviour of model airplanes to predict
the performance and behaviour of the design before the construction phase. Like all modelling
and simulation software, the results obtained from the XFLR5 analysis will not reflect the true
performance of the aircraft during flight tests, however, it will assist with lift surface sizing and
air foil selection which will greatly reduce the trial-and-error process. The general steps for
performing airplane analysis in XFLR5 include air foil batch analysis, defining airplane
geometry and inertia, and analysing airplane flight dynamics. This tutorial will briefly
introduce these steps using the Blue baby Trainer plane and will also provide a foundation for
applying XFLR5 analysis to student’s own airplane designs for the flight competition.

2. XFLR5 Installation
All content relating to XFLR5 can be found on the website http://www.xflr5.com/xflr5.htm.
This site contains helpful documentation as well as a link to YouTube tutorials on how to use
the software. This tutorial is mostly based on the XFLR5 documentation and video tutorials,
so it is recommended that students review this material when designing their airplanes. To
install XFLR5 visit https://sourceforge.net/projects/xflr5/files/ and download the latest
version. The installation instructions will be provided after the download is complete. Make
sure you save your work regularly, XFLR5 can crash randomly during computations.

More information at https://www.flitetest.com/articles/ft-explorer-build

3. XFLR5 Simulation Procedure

3.1. Importing Air foil Geometry Files.
Reference tutorials can be found at https://youtu.be/U7saOcozpi8.

3.1.1. Air foil Tools

Before opening XFLR5, you will need to obtain the data points corresponding to the air foils
that you plan to analyse. Visit Airfoil Tools / and click either Air foil search or Air foil plotter.
 XFLR5 Introduction Tutorial (ME3610 - Design of Mechatronics Systems)

The Air foil plotter page allows you to design your own custom air foil that you can then export
for use in XFLR5. For this tutorial we will use two predefined air foils that approximately
represent. the air foil geometries of the Blue baby wing and tail. In the air foil search menu,
enter NACA 4412 into the text search box, then click Air foil details to the right of the air foil
image on the search page. This is the air foil that will be used for the wing analysis of the Blue
baby. The details page contains important lift and drag information that can be used in your
calculations when initially designing the wings and tail of your airplanes. The air foil
performance plots are calculated using various Reynolds numbers and angles of attack to
generate characteristic curves. The airfoiltools page and XFLR5 both use Xfoil software.

3.1.2. Importing Air foils to XFLR5.

To export the NACA 4412 data points file, right click the link labelled "Source dat file" and
click save link as .dat. Make sure that you save the file using the file extension ".dat" instead
of ".txt".

Open XFLR5 and click File then Direct Foil Design. At the top of the window, click the icon.

FIGURE 1. Details of the NACA 4412 airfoil shown on the website.

with the blue folder and the paper inside, Open, and open the NACA4412.dat file that you just
downloaded. You should now see that at the bottom of your screen a list of two foils, a Spline
foil and NACA 4412. Right clicking the name of a foil on this list allows you to manage its
parameters. Right click the NACA 4412 name, select "Refine globally" and change the
number of panels to 100, overwrite your original NACA 4412 air foil if prompted. Adding
more panels refines the geometry of the air foil and should improve the accuracy of the analysis.
You may have to change the colour and the width of the air foil plotter to make it visible in the
black background. Next, import an air foil for the tail. You may repeat the process described
above or if you are using a NACA airfoil, you may import the geometry directly using XFLR5.
Since the Blue baby has at plates for the elevator and fin, we will approximate this geometry

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using a relatively thin and symmetrical airfoil the NACA 0009. Defining a at plate in XFLR5
causes discontinuities in the airfoil analysis, therefore, it recommended that you select an airfoil
that approximates this geometry. You may use other thin symmetrical airfoils if you like.
To import the NACA 0009 using XFLR5, in the Direct Foil Design window, at the top of the
screen click Foil then Naca Foils, enter the digits 0009 and set the number of panels to 100,
click OK. You should now see both airfoils on the screen, if they are not visible, click the
"Show" box next to each of their names in the list at the bottom of the screen.

FIGURE 2. Adding the NACA 4412 and 0009 airfoils.

3.2. Airfoil Batch Analysis

3.2.1. Setting up Batch Analysis
The next step is to perform Batch analysis on each of the airfoils that we will use in the airplane
design. The batch analysis basically evaluates the lift and drag parameters of each of the airfoils
for various Reynolds numbers at different angles of attack. To begin the batch analysis, in the
XFLR5 window, click File then XFoil Direct Analysis. This will bring you to a screen with
several blank graphs. At the top of the screen, click Analysis then Multi-threaded Batch
Analysis. In the Foil Selection box select Foil list, then click the Foil list button, click NACA
4412 and NACA 0009, then click OK. In batch variables, click Re List then click Edit List to
select the
Reynolds number values to evaluate. You may set the Reynolds numbers to any range that you
like; we will analyse from 15,000 to 1,000,000 for this tutorial. Click OK to exit that menu. In
the Analysis Range box where it says Specify, click the circle next to \Alpha" and click the box
next to "From Zero". Finally, specify the minimum and maximum Alpha ranges and the angle
Increment. For this session we will pick Alpha to range from -6 to 15 degrees and the increment
to be 0.5 degrees. If there are significant discontinuities in the generated plots, try reducing the
increment value to facilitate numerical convergence during the analysis. Click Analyse and
wait for the batch analysis to complete.

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FIGURE 3. Batch Analysis window.

3.2.2. Managing Batch Analysis Data

You should now see multiple graphs showing different characteristics for each foil at different
Reynolds numbers. This data is used by XFLR5 to calculate the performance of your airplane
once you have defined the plane geometry and analysis criteria. Right clicking any of the plots
on the Batch Analysis window allows you to manipulate graph properties, select which polars
are visible and reset the scales of the plots. Alternatively, you can change graph settings by
double left clicking any of the plots, this will also allow you to change the variables that are
plotted. You can zoom in on any of the curves by hovering your mouse over the plot and
scrolling up or down.

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FIGURE 4. Graphs generated after running the batch analysis.
 XFLR5 Introduction Tutorial (ME3610 - Design of Mechatronics Systems)

3.3. Airplane Design and Analysis

The next step in the XFLR5 design process is to define your airplane geometry and inertia
properties. Click File then Wing and Plane Design to get started. Once you are in the airplane
design window, at the top of the screen click Plane then Define a New Plane to open the Plane
editor.

3.3.1. Defining the Wing

First, we will define the main wing by clicking the "Define" button in the Main Wing box.
There will be a list of wing section parameters displayed with two sections already defined.
The sections are basically two-dimensional faces that are connected by an extrusion to form a
three-dimensional wing. This means that the first section is the centre cross section, where the
two halves of the wing meet in the middle. The second section is at the tip of the wing. You
can see which section you have selected by clicking each individually in the list; the
corresponding section will be highlighted as a red face in the GUI. To define the first sections
of our wing, we will click the white space below "foil" in the list and select "NACA 4412" for
each section, this will assign the airfoil for the wing sections and you should see the wing shape
update in the GUI window.

Since the Blue baby wings are not tapered, we will set the chord for each of the wing sections
to be the same, approximately 22 cm and the offset to be 0 cm for both. (Note: The dimensions
used in this tutorial are approximate and will vary from plane to plane. It is recommended that
you measure the dimensions and weights/mass locations of your own Blue baby build when
doing this analysis.) Set the dihedrals to 0 degrees and 5.3 degrees for sections 1 and 2,
respectively. Set the y value for section 2 to be 41.4 cm. Click “Save” and close.

FIGURE 5.Fully defined main wing.

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3.3.2 Defining the Elevator

Next, we will define the elevator portion of the tail using a similar approach to the process
above. In the Plane Editor window, in the Elevator box, ensure that the check box next to
"Elevator" has been clicked, this will include the elevator in the plane analysis. Click the
Define button to begin designing the elevator. Again, two sections will be included in the list
initially, click the white space below "foil" and set both to NACA 0009. Set the chord for both
sections to 12.5 cm, set their offsets to 0 cm and set their dihedrals to 0 cm. Set the y value
of section 2 to 1.2 cm. Highlight section 2 in the list by left clicking it, then click "Insert after
section 2" at the
top of the window. For section 3, set the y value to 20.6 cm, the chord to 7.4 cm, the offset to
5.15 cm and the airfoil to NACA 0009. The elevator geometry should now be fully defined,
click "Save" and close. I n the Plane Editor window, in the Elevator box, set the x and z values
to 37.3cm and - 4.5 cm, respectively. Again, all the dimension listed in this tutorial should be
measured by students using their own airplanes to ensure accuracy.

FIGURE 6. Fully defined Elevator

3.3.3 Defining the Fin

In the Plane Editor window, in the Fin box, ensure that the check box next to "Fin" has been
clicked, this will include the fin in the plane analysis. Click the Define button to begin
designing the fin. Two sections will be included in the list initially, click the white space below
"foil" and set both to NACA 0009. Set the chord values to 13.1 cm and 6.34 cm f or sections
1 and 2 respectively. For section 2, set the y value to 11.4 cm and the offset to 8.83 cm. Click
"Save" and close. In the Plane Editor window, in the Fin box, set x and z to 39.8 cm and - 4.5
cm, respectively. The fin geometry is now fully defined.

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FIGURE 7. Fully defined Fin

3.3.4 Define Plane Inertia

To define the inertia of all the airplane components, click the Plane Inertia button in the Plane
Editor window. In the Component Inertias box, define the inertias of the main wing, elevator,
and fin to 110g, 40g and 25g, respectively. (Measure all masses yourself using your own plane.)

In the Plane Inertia menu, define a set of point masses as shown in the table below. These
numbers are approximate, and students should measure the masses and locations on their own
plane.
TABLE 1. Component weights of the Blue baby
Mass(g) x(cm) y(cm) z(cm) Component
100 -13.8 0 -4 Motor
158 -12 0 -8 Battery
42 0 0 -5.5 Electronics
50 30 0 -5.5 Tail Servos
150 11.5 0 -5.5 Fuselage

Once all masses are defined, click Ok to exit the Plane Inertia menu and click Ok to exit the
Plane Editor. You should now see the wing and tail sections in the main window of XFLR5.
The body of the airplane is not included in the simulation because it not recommended by the
developers since it causes stability issues with the analysis.

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FIGURE 8. Adding weights of the components.

Make sure you tick the box in front of Masses to get the point masses visible.

FIGURE 9. Model built for analysis.

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3.4 Aerodynamic Analysis of Airplane

Now that the plane geometry and inertias are defined, we are ready to begin analysing the
aerodynamic performance of the design. At the top of the screen while in the Wing and Plane
Design window, click Analysis then Define an Analysis. There are four types of analysis
listed that you could perform on your airplane, we will only consider the first two for this
tutorial. Type 1 (Fixed Speed) allows you to analyse the airplane performance at a particular
speed for various angles of attack. If you are performing this analysis, enter the speed in the
box on the right side of the Polar Type section of the Analysis Definition window. If you are
performing Type 2 (Fixed Lift) analysis, just click the circle next to Type 2 (Fixed Lift) in
the Polar Type section; this will analyse the airplane performance using constant lift conditions
for a range of angles of attack. For the fixed lift analysis, the value of the lift is equal to the
airplane weight. In the same window, click the box labelled "Analysis" and select "Ring vortex
(VLM2)" and make sure that the box next to "Viscous" is checked. Click Save. There should
be a side menu labelled "Plane Analysis" on the screen. Click the check box next to
"Sequence", specify the range of angles of attack and angle increment for the analysis. Click
"Analyse" to begin computations.

FIGURE 10. Analysis method selection.

Once the analysis is complete, you can click check boxes in the "Results" section of the Plane
Analysis side menu to graphically display performance characteristics for each angle of attack.
You can also click "Animate" to watch the graphical characteristics change as the angle of
attack is varied. In the "Display" section of the Plane Analysis side menu you can configure
the 3D view of your airplane. Click the "Masses" check box to see the point masses that we
have defined. It is recommended that the centre of gravity of the airplane is located
approximately a third of the wing chord back from the leading edge of the wing. At the top of
the screen, there is a small airplane icon, to the left of this icon is a drag polar shaped icon
called "Polar View". Click this button to view the results of the airplane analysis. To change
the plotted variables of any graph just hover your mouse over the graph and double left click
to open the options menu. The results are shown for the Blue baby model built by the
instructors. Note: You will not get the exact same plots but somewhat close to it. The plots
above show the results for a fixed lift simulation with the angle of attack ranging from -6 to 15

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degrees at an increment of 0.5 degrees. The Polar View window can provide important
information that can facilitate the design process of your own airplane.

FIGURE 11. Model view after analysis is complete.

FIGURE 12. Polar view after completing the analysis

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