ADS Calculator

Polar workbench

Import your XFOIL and CFD results directly and extend the polar with columns: forces at any speed, moments about any axis or your own formula.

Polar workbench

Import your XFOIL and CFD results directly

Load a saved simulation or any polar file and extend it with columns: forces at several speeds, moments about any axis, efficiency figures or a formula of your own. Every column explains itself, and the whole table exports to CSV.

ADS XFOILADS CFDXFLR5CSV

Downforce and drag

Forces and power at any speed

From your own polar instead of a guessed coefficient, corrected for a finite wing, with a check of the Reynolds number.

Finite wing (3D)

From airfoil polar to real wing

Lifting-line theory on your polar: the induced angle, the induced drag and the effect of endplates.

Air and Reynolds

Density, viscosity, Re and Mach

From temperature, pressure and humidity, with the speed at which your polar is valid.

Custom

Your own charts and tables

An empty page you fill with widgets: any quantity as a chart, a table or a single value. Save the layout as a template.

Wing loads and mounts

Coming next

Loads along the span, reactions in every mount and the moments in swan necks and pedestals, with a speed slider.

Input data

A spreadsheet that knows aerodynamics

Load one polar and extend it with columns: forces at any speed, the power the drag costs, finite-wing values, efficiency figures for aircraft, the centre of pressure, the pitching moment about any axis (the load an adjustable wing puts on its adjuster) or a formula of your own.

Each column keeps its own settings, so downforce at 100, 150 and 200 km/h can sit side by side. The whole table exports to CSV.

Characteristics of the polar

The lift curve slope and the zero-lift angle come from a least-squares fit over the linear part of the polar. Maximum lift, minimum drag and the best lift to drag ratio are read from the data.

Which file formats can I load?

XFOIL and XFLR5 polar text files, the polar files and CFD polar exports of Aero Design Studio, and any CSV, TSV or space separated table with columns for the angle of attack, CL and CD (CM is optional). The columns are found by their names, in any order and spelling: alpha or AoA, CL or Cz, CD or Cx, with or without units, with decimal points or decimal commas. Where the names are missing or unknown, the calculator shows the first rows and asks which column is which before it loads anything.

What should a polar file look like?

One row for each angle of attack under a line of column names. The angle is in degrees, the moment coefficient is optional, and other columns are kept:

# Re: 500000
# Ncrit: 9
alpha,CL,CD,CM
0,0.4711,0.00692,-0.1011
2,0.7013,0.00762,-0.1015
4,0.9116,0.00884,-0.0988

The Reynolds number and Ncrit are read from lines such as Re = 0.500 e 6, Re: 500000 or Ncrit = 9 above the table. A table with mostly negative CL is read as a wing that makes downforce. The Import data dialog shows the same rules next to the layout of the polar files that Aero Design Studio saves.

Which variables can a formula column use?

alpha, cl, cd and cm of the airfoil, CL, CD, CM, CDi, ai and aef of the finite wing, and q, qe, rho, V, S, b, c, AR, ARef, e, mu, nu, g and pi. Functions: sqrt, abs, sin, cos, tan, asin, acos, atan, atan2, exp, ln, log10, min, max, pow, rad and deg.