Coupled Multibody/Computational Fluid Dynamics Simulation of Maneuvering Flexible Aircraft

This paper illustrates the application of multibody system dynamics coupled to computational fluid dynamics for the aeroelastic analysis of detailed aircraft models performing arbitrary free flight motion. An efficient alternative to modeling different aspects of aeromechanics in a monolithic code consists in building computational aeroservoelasticity modeling capability using independent software components for each domain: structure, fluid and mechanism analysis. This partitioned approach relies on dedicated software exploiting the most appropriate techniques to address the dynamics of each specific field. Efficiency is guaranteed since each subsystem can be modeled independently; specific time and spatial scales of interest are considered. Model setup is flexible: the designer can choose the most appropriate tools, trading accuracy for computational costs, requiring higher-order fidelity methods only when simplified ones cannot be applied, or their validation is pursued. The combination of multibody system dynamics and computational fluid dynamics yields a highly accurate prediction tool, that can be crucial in the preliminary and intermediate design steps of unconventional configurations, for the investigation of loads, performance, stability and vibratory response of the vehicle at the boundaries of the flight envelope. Its application to the analysis of an aircraft maneuvering in transonic flight is presented.