Aeroelastic Analysis for Future Air Vehicle Concepts Using a Fully Nonlinear Methodology Conference Paper uri icon

abstract

  • Future air vehicles will be highly flexible, resulting in new physical interactions between a vehicles structure, the surrounding airstream, and the dynamics of the vehicle that are fundamentally nonlinear. Although existing aeroelastic methodologies may be reliable for traditional applications, they fail to properly capture the complex physics expected for these vehicles. New challenges include non-traditional and time-varying geometries, separated flows, nonlinear dynamic vehicle states, and high-fidelity modeling requirements for highly integrated vehicles. In short, there is a need for understanding the basic interactions that occur in systems dominated by nonlinearities in all three disciplines - structure, flow, and dynamics, and there is a need for computational interfaces adequate to handle the nonlinear interdisciplinary interactions. The investigators present research that addresses vehicles of moderate-to-high deformations such as those proposed in the AFRL SensorCraft Program. Presented research includes development of the nonlinear structural equations of motion for benchmark configurations that permits in-plane, out- of-plane, and torsional couplings; an unsteady aerodynamic approach that addresses viscous and compressible flows for transonic flows with shock/boundary layer interaction; a solution methodology that assures synchronous interaction between the nonlinear structure and fluid including a consistent geometric interface between the highly-deforming structure and flow field; and nonlinear analysis to fully explore the bifurcation characteristics, potential parametric resonances, and parameter space related to design.

name of conference

  • 46th AIAA/ASME/ASCE/AHS/ASC Structures, Structural Dynamics and Materials Conference

published proceedings

  • 46th AIAA/ASME/ASCE/AHS/ASC Structures, Structural Dynamics and Materials Conference

author list (cited authors)

  • Strganac, T., Cizmas, P., Nichkawde, C., Gargoloff, J., & Beran, P.

citation count

  • 12

complete list of authors

  • Strganac, Thomas||Cizmas, Paul||Nichkawde, Chetan||Gargoloff, Joaquin||Beran, Philip

publication date

  • April 2005