Visualisation for Testcases other than NREL 5MW

Hello everybody,
I am trying to visualise the Testcases. I have followed the procedure for turning the switches on to produce files for Paraview and have been successful so far. However, the surface visualisation is available only for Testcases 18-24 which are using the NREL 5MW WT. I am aware that surface visualisations are possible only when AD15 input file is used for AeroDyn in the Testcase and also the coods of the airfoils of each airfoils are required. I found the S-series airfoil coods here wind.nrel.gov/airfoils/Shapes/S812_Shape.html.

  1. I would like to know if it is possible to produce surface visualisation for other Testcases.
  2. The airfoils used in Testcases are sometimes ‘S812_2’ and ‘S812_15’. Where do I get these two different airfoil coods?
  3. I viewed the airfoil coods files given for the TestCases18-24. What does the ‘x-y coordinate of airfoil reference’ mean?

Thanks!
Regards,
Tiasa

Dear Tiasa,

The “S812_2” and “S812_15” refer to the S812 airfoil with the airfoil coefficients derived at a Reynolds number of 2 million and 15 million, respectively. The airfoil shape is defined in terms of the aerodynamic center (reference point for the airfoil lift, drag, and pitching moment coefficients) plus a number of points to define the exterior shape of the airfoil. You can find the airfoil shapes of NREL’s S-Series airfoils here: wind.nrel.gov/airfoils/Shapes/S809_Shape.html. The airfoil shapes of other airfoils can be found outside of NREL; some might may be proprietary. That said, the visualization does not effect the numerical solution, so, it may not be that important to use exactly the correct airfoil shape if visualization is your only goal.

I hope that helps.

Best regards,