02 / READ THE SURFACE
Pressure tells a story.
Upper LowerCp is plotted with lower pressure upwards. The difference between the two curves contributes to the pressure force.
Connecting to local solver…
LOCAL CFD PILOT
Shape fixed.
Flow revealed.
A NACA 0012 section. A controlled experiment.
Calculate first, then explore the flow.
01 Set up→02 Solve→03 Explore
FREE STREAM U∞ →
NACA 0012
Ready when you are.
Fix the conditions, then run the calculation.
Completed runs show their numerical check status.
Scroll to zoom · drag to pan · click to inspect
Tracers in a stationary mean flow
Set up your experiment—
Geometry and conditions are locked for each submitted calculation.
Solver time—measured wall-clock
Lift coefficient—CL · section
Drag coefficient—CD · section
Numerical checks—residuals / forces / mass
03 / CHECK THE SOLUTION
Watch the equations settle.
Pressure P · velocity U, V · turbulence SA. The dashed stage boundary marks the start of refinement. A falling residual alone does not establish physical accuracy.
ONE CONTROLLED CHANGE
Start at zero.
Then add incidence.
Compare 0° with 4° on the same mesh. Look for the change in upper-surface pressure and how the flow turns. Every run retains its own conditions and timing.
WHAT THE MOTION MEANS
A computed field.
A moving tracer.
SU2 calculates a steady, fully turbulent mean flow. Passive markers then move through that field. This visual explanation is not a recording of turbulent eddies or vortex shedding.
RESEARCH HABITS
Inspect the evidence.
This pilot checks residuals, force stability and mass balance. Surface resolution and the turbulence model still affect the answer. A run that misses the checks is marked provisional. It can be inspected, but is not a converged or experimentally validated solution.
Model and run details ↓Model, conditions and numerical checks
Fixed physical case
Two-dimensional incompressible RANS with Spalart–Allmaras. No-slip aerofoil, farfield boundary, density 2.13163 kg/m³, viscosity 1.853 × 10⁻⁵ Pa s. These reproduce the benchmark conditions, not a sea-level standard atmosphere.
The geometry, trailing edge and domain follow the official SU2 NACA 0012 mesh. This pilot fixes the shape and offers 0° and 4°; it does not predict three-dimensional wing behaviour or stall.
Completion criteria
A result is labelled numerically complete only when pressure, both velocity and SA turbulence residuals reach log₁₀ RMS ≤ −8. The range of each force coefficient over the last 100 iterations must be below 10⁻⁴. Independently integrated net farfield mass flux must be below 10⁻⁴ of inflow.
Playback interpolates the SU2 velocities inside actual mesh cells, rotated with the geometry to show horizontal free stream. The display grid is coarser than the calculation mesh and does not resolve the near-wall boundary layer.
- Run record
- No completed run selected.
Local compute service is offline. Run tools\wind-tunnel-su2\start-su2.ps1 in the website project. The original interactive low-Re wind tunnel remains available.