Re: Extensive runtime for wing analysis

[Brandon Litherland]

Please share the model if you can.  Images usually aren't enough.

On Friday, July 10, 2026 at 6:12:17 AM UTC-4 so.va...@gmail.com wrote:

Dear OpenVSP team and other interested parties,

I am attempting to run VSPAERO simulations to get familiar with the programme. Current simulations are an attempt to see the behaviour on complex geometries. This is where I run into problems.

I am simulating on a model which employs a so-called X-wing configuration. I am not analysing the entire model yet, I am currently focusing on just its wings. An initial test of the main wing took about 2 hours, whereas a rectangular high aspect ratio wing took mere seconds. Now I am testing two successive wings (wing and tail surfaces) of that type in thick mode, which projects to take 10+ hours, and this seems too extensive.

I have configured VSPAERO to run from (-5 to -15) for 21 points (each angle) and to perform 10 iterations for each step. 

I hope you can help me identify the root cause of this extensive time.

Sean

[Sean van Hees]

Please find enclosed the model I am currently analysing. 

This extensive run time arises when I am analysing the wings. Analysing the main wing solely, it is able to complete the analysis in reasonable time. When analysing both wing and tail (without a fuselage active) slows down the analysis significantly.

Op vrijdag 10 juli 2026 om 12:14:32 UTC+2 schreef Brandon Litherland:

[Sean van Hees]

I am not sure whether my response got sent, so I am replying again.

Please find enclosed my model.

I have identified that the run time increases when analysing the wings solely, especially, when attempting to analyse the interaction of the wing and tail.

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Op vr 10 jul 2026 om 12:14 schreef Brandon Litherland <litherlan...@gmail.com>:

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[Rob McDonald]

I played around a bit and came to this model that should serve as a starting point for you.

There were recurring mesh failures that I traced to the perfect alignment between the lower horizontal tail and the mesh on the fuselage.  Shifting that tail up to Z=0 made it so the mesh did not align and we got a mesh that ran successfully.

I set it up to run with the wings as Thin and the fuselage as Thick.  Unless you have a strong reason to do otherwise, this is my recommendation.

Don't start by running 21 angles of attack.  Debug everything with just one.  Once that is working well, then add some more as needed.  I promise you do not need to run 21 aoa.

You had it set to 64 wake points -- this is probably what was causing the biggest slowdown.  I backed it off to 8 and down to 4 wake iterations.  Start with small numbers on parameters like these and increase if you have a compelling reason -- don't start high.

Likewise, I decreased some of the resolution of your mesh (and clustering).  It is still probably more than I would work with, but I was trying things until I could get solutions working.  Once I had things reasonable, I didn't keep playing around.

Rob

[Sean van Hees]

Dear Rob,

Thank you for your support. This helps me a lot with both the model and understanding the programme.

I am facing another issue with another geometry I created. When I set the Fuselage, which consists of the fuselage and nose components, it just models the nose component and wing surface, subtracting the fuselage from these components and omitting the fuselage part. I spent yesterday afternoon trying to resolve this issue, but have been unsuccessful so far. Can you help me identify the issue and explain to me what I can do to prevent this from arising in the future?

Yours sincerely,

Sean

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Op ma 13 jul 2026 om 19:25 schreef Rob McDonald <rob.a.m...@gmail.com>:

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