Static Geometrically Nonlinear Aeroelastic Framework for Multi-Fidelity Analysis

Abstract

In this paper, a new multi-fidelity aeroelastic framework for highly flexible wings is proposed. A corotational approach with a shell finite element is used to consider the geometrical nonlinearity produced by flexible wings. An unsteady vortex-lattice aerodynamic method and a fast unstructured CFD code are coupled with the structural model subject to the large deformations, providing different fidelity solutions. The developed geometrically nonlinear aeroelastic solutions with different fidelities are compared to evaluate accuracies and computational efficiencies.