u/letki11

Hi everyone!

Some of you are working in motorsport so I'm sure this will help you at least a little bit.

Over the last few months I built a web app for motorsport wing design which lets you download and simulate your projects. It has:

• Built-in airfoil library (but you can also import a custom airfoil shape)
• Parametric setup (chord, span, AoA, endplates)
• Multi-element wing designer (up to 3 elements) - gap/overlap setup
• Modifiers (Curvature & Variable AoA - different AoA on the wing tips vs its core)
• Export 3D files in .STEP & .STL format (for free)
• Possibility to save your projects and airfoil profiles for further work

There's also a simulation tool based on XFOIL - that outputs crucial information on your design (CL, CD, L/D, stall margin). Additionally, it gives a proper PDF report with more in-depth analysis (Cp distribution, Pressure vectors, Transition location, Boundary-layer health & Separation bubbles). It's not for free since it consumes a bit of CPU but everyone gets free tokens to try it out. All the other features remain FREE.

It started as something I made for my own use. Figured it might save someone else a few hours too. Feedback welcome - especially from anyone actively doing aero work.

You can try it out here: https://www.aerodesignstudio.com/

If you have trouble using these features, you can watch this video which covers what's new and how to use it - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZxLITPJSy78

https://preview.redd.it/jjhyr0obi30h1.png?width=3840&format=png&auto=webp&s=a592b97c6f5d8bfadc0b9d9d579f854ff69baa9a

https://preview.redd.it/28lxhu2ai30h1.png?width=3840&format=png&auto=webp&s=05ead9908bb062b1a3d4e02cf8d6a09678c64008

Hi everyone, I am working on a tool for my FS team to make reports based on XFOIL simulation results (for motorsport application - this means flipped wings). I initally wanted just to visualize Cl, Cd and L/D but started to experiment with more technical ones.

The CL/CD/L-D vs α plots I've cross-checked against airfoiltools.com for several profiles and they match to within rounding, so I'm confident there. The five I'd really value feedback on are these:

1. Transition chart (laminar/turbulent)
2. BL health chart (H shape factor + Cf skin friction vs x/c)
3. Seperation-bubble overlay
   4/5 - two Cp charts

Few main questions here:

1. Is reading Top_Xtr/Bot_Xtr from the polar file the right way to surface XFOIL's free-transition prediction, or is there a better source?

2. Are H and Cf the most useful BL "health" diagnostics for FS-level users, or would you swap one out (e.g. Reθ, momentum thickness)?

3. Is my bubble detection criterion (Cf < -1e-4 OR H > 4.0, reattach when Cf > 0 AND H < 3.5) a reasonable proxy for what XFOIL is actually showing?

4. Anything obviously wrong or misleading in how the plots are presented?

Simulation conditions:

• airfoil: Eppler E423
• AoA = -5 degrees (inverted for motorsport)
• Re = 1*10^6
• Ncrit = 9

Note on motorsport convention: my tool flips airfoil coordinates before sending them to XFOIL when the user picks "inverted" orientation, so XFOIL always sees a standard upper-surface-up shape. The α value is passed through unchanged, so XFOIL is internally computing the airfoil at α = -5° (standard orientation). I then negate CL and CM in post-processing to express results as downforce-positive. This means the "upper" surface in the XFOIL output corresponds to the pressure side of the inverted wing in real-world orientation. The Cp/transition/BL plots reflect this.

https://preview.redd.it/4c1qz3okqhyg1.png?width=635&format=png&auto=webp&s=4e92a64be5809f91eb1f15a67896c8ee5a4da274

https://preview.redd.it/s6c93wblqhyg1.png?width=794&format=png&auto=webp&s=e3fea44a93547489c49953ce62595d377e494d70