Modern developments in computational aeroelasticity

Abstract

A survey of the main challenges in computational aeroelasticity is presented and recent ideas and developments are discussed. Advances over the past 25 years have to a large extent been paced by the required developments in computational fluid dynamics (CFD). The fluid-structure coupling problem remains of central importance and must be addressed in a rational manner in order to obtain accurate and reliable flutter solutions. In the direct Eulerian-Lagrangian computational scheme, a consistent and efficient fluid-structure coupling is obtained by modelling and integrating the fluid-structure system as a single dynamical system, without introducing normal or assumed modes, or an artificial “virtual surface” at the boundary. This computational approach effectively eliminates the phase integration errors associated with classical methods, where the fluid and the structure are integrated sequentially using different schemes. Numerical results are presented to contrast the efficacy of the various schemes in non-linear aeroelastic and aeroservoelastic calculations.