Guidance on running flow5 in script mode for iterative geometry variation and calculating stability derivatives

[manithapasandul-wq]

I am working with flow5 and would like to run it in script mode using XML input files, without the GUI, in order to automate aerodynamics and stability analyses.
My goal is to:

• Iteratively modify aircraft geometric parameters (e.g. wing span, sweep, tail volume, etc.)
• Run flow5 for each geometry configuration
• Compute stability derivatives (∂CL/∂α, ∂Cm/∂α, etc.) and flying mode characteristics (Frequency and damping ratio..)

I would appreciate help with:

1. The correct way to launch flow5 in script mode from the command line
2. How geometric parameters are expected to be defined or modified within the XML script
3. Whether flow5 supports running multiple cases or parameter sweeps within a single XML script
4. Any examples or documentation related to stability derivative computation in script mode

Any advice, examples, or references would be greatly appreciated.

[techwinder]

1. launch flow5 from the terminal with the command flow5 -p -s script_file.xml. Script examples are linked in the resources section of the online documentation
2. geometry is handled via xml files; to get a template, use the option to export a plane to an xml file; operations which require manual construction such as fuselage meshing are not available through scripting
3. See the script examples
4. Will write documentation on the script module.

[manithapasandul-wq]

Thank you for your reply. I was able to successfully run a simple T1 analysis without including a fuselage. However, I noticed that during the scripted run, the derivatives calculation step is being skipped.

When I opened the FLOW5 project file generated by the script and ran the calculation manually through the GUI, the derivatives were computed correctly. I have attached both the script execution log and the GUI log from the manual run for reference.

Could you please advise on the possible reasons why the derivatives calculation is skipped during the scripted execution, and how this issue might be resolved?
GUI Log.txt
Script Log.txt

[techwinder]

The option is missing. I've committed the mod and updated the template script.
You will need to compile the app if you do not wish to wait for the new version which is likely a few weeks away.