Tips and tricks

What can this model simulate

The following bodies can be simulated:

• conventional bodies, consisting of one or more wings
• leading edge inflatable (LEI) kites
• RAM-air kites

To build the geometry of a RAM-air kite, a 3D .obj file can be used as input. In addition a .dat file is needed. It should have two columns, one for the x and one for the y coordinate of the 2D polar that is used.

RAM-air kite model

If running the example ram_air_kite.jl fails, try to run the cleanup.jl script and then try again. Background: this example caches the calculated polars. Reading cached polars can fail after an update.

Output formats

Currently, the solve!() function returns the results as VSMSolution struct. The function solve() returns a dictionary with the results. The solve!() function is faster, and the solve() contains many more entries, therefore the first function is good for integration in dynamic models and the second one better suited for aerodynamic analysis.

Performance

Calling reinit!(body_aero; init_aero=false) is very fast. After calling deform!(wing), you have to run reinit!(body_aero; init_aero=false) to apply the deformed wing to the body aerodynamics. This is in turn necessary for the linearization from deformation to aerodynamic coefficients for RAM-air kites.

Contributing

Please, read CONTRIBUTING.md

Building the documentation locally

You can build the documentation locally after checking out the source code with git, launching Julia and executing:

include("scripts/build_docu.jl")

A browser window should pop up automatically.