Computational fluid dynamics computational structural dynamics interaction methodology for aircraft wings

With advanced subsonic transports and military aircraft operating in the transonic regime, it is becoming important to determine the effects of the coupling between aerodynamic loads and elastic forces. Because aeroelastic effects can significantly impact the design of these aircraft, there is a strong need in the aerospace industry to predict these interactions computationally. Such an analysis in the transonic regime requires high-fidelity computational fluid dynamics (CFD) analysis tools, due to the nonlinear behavior of the aerodynamics, and high-fidelity computational structural dynamics (CSD) analysis tools. Also, there is a need to be able to use a wide variety of CFD and CSD methods to predict aeroelastic effects. Because source codes are not always available, it is necessary to couple the CFD and CSD codes without alteration of the source codes. In this study, an aeroelastic coupling procedure is developed to determine the static aeroelastic response of aircraft wings using any CFD and CSD code with little code integration. The procedure is demonstrated on an F/A-18 stabilator using NASTD tan in-house McDonnell Douglas CFD code) and NASTRAN. In addition, the Aeroelastic Research Wing is used for demonstration with ENSAERO (NASA Ames Research Center CFD code) coupled with a finite element wing-box code. The results obtained from the present study are compared with those available from an experimental study conducted at NASA Langley Research Center and a study conducted at NASA Ames Research Center using ENSAERO and modal superposition. The results compare well with experimental data.