Fast Nonlinear Static Aeroelasticity Method for High-Aspect-Ratio Wings at Different Mach Regimes

Abstract

A low-computational-cost method is proposed in this paper to predict steady-state nonlinear aeroelastic response for high-aspect-ratio wings. This fast nonlinear static aeroelasticity method relies on a simple but robust mathematical approach. The work presented in this paper evaluates the accuracy of a nonlinear aerodynamic method on a large range of Mach numbers for a geometry representative of a typical industrial high-aspect-ratio-wing aircraft. The robustness of the method relies on the accurate estimation of the local pressure field based on an aerodynamic database using a local incidence estimated with a vortex lattice method. The database can be filled with flight test, wind tunnel test, or high-fidelity numerical simulation. The structural deformation is provided by a coupled aeroelastic high-fidelity numerical simulation, and so this paper focuses mainly on the development and validation of the aerodynamic model. Then, the flexible coefficients of the wing are compared to the high-fidelity aeroelastic numerical simulations for a set of Mach numbers ranging from subsonic to transonic conditions. The results presented in this paper show that the present method is very accurate for low-Mach-number regimes (error is lower than 1% on lift), and it is also adapted to transonic flow regimes because the error on lift is lower than 5%. For high Mach numbers, the current solution commits larger errors on drag and pitching moment coefficients.