Aeroelastic Analysis of a Single Element Composite Wing in Ground Effect Using Fluid–Structure Interaction

Abstract

The present work focuses on an advanced coupling of computational fluid dynamics (CFD) and structural analysis (FEA) on the aeroelastic behaviour of a single element inverted composite wing with the novelty of including the ground effect. The front wing of the Formula One (F1) car can become flexible under the fluid loading due to elastic characteristics of composite materials, resulting in changing the flow field and eventually altering overall aerodynamics. The purpose of this study is to setup an accurate fluid-structure interaction (FSI) modelling framework and to assess the influence of elastic behaviour of the wing in ground effect on the aerodynamic and structural performance. Different turbulence models are studied to better capture the changes of the flow field and variation of ride heights are considered to investigate the influence of ground effect on aerodynamic phenomena. A steady-state two-way coupling method is exploited to run the FSI numerical simulations using ANSYS, which enables simultaneous calculation by coupling CFD with FEA. The effect of various composite structures on the wing performance is extensively studied concerning structure configuration, ply orientation and core materials. The numerical results generally represent good agreement with the experimental data, however, discrepancy, especially in the aerodynamic force, is presented. This may be consequence of less effective angle of attack due to the wing deflection and deterioration of vortex-induced effect. For the structural analysis, the woven structure gives rise to more stable structural deflection than the unidirectional structure despite the associated weight penalty.

Numerical Investigation and Fluid-Structure Interaction (FSI) Analysis on a Double-Element Simplified Formula One (F1) Composite Wing in the Presence of Ground Effect

“…However, in order to achieve coupling method stability, the focus should be on correlating the fluid and structural algorithms. The wing is considered as a tube type structure in the structural model, and our scope is to investigate the final shape of the wing affected by the fluid flow field [37]. Therefore, the effect of the structural damping is neglected as a modelling assumption.…”

“…The structural analysis consisted of a smaller number of grid cells in comparison with that of the fluid analysis. After the mesh sensitivity study was thoroughly conducted, it was concluded that the resultant wing performance is not significantly attributed to increase in the number of grid cells on the structural side [37]. The reason for not presenting a validation of the structural model is that there are no experimental data available for this particular problem in the literature.…”

“…Several variations of the structural design of the wing were studied to quantify its behaviour related to aerodynamic forces applied. Another recent work studied aeroelastic behaviour of the wing in ground effect [37]. The single-element composite wing in ground effect was used to investigate and quantify the aeroelastic effect on the aerodynamic and structural performance of the wing using a two-way coupling method in ANSYS software, which has great benefits in reducing the resources required to develop a specific code and associated implementation procedure.…”