A numerical investigation of nonlinear aeroelastic effects on flexible high aspect ratio wings

A nonlinear aeroelastic analysis that couples a nonlinear structural model with an Euler/Navier-Stokes flow solver is developed for flexible high aspect ratio wings. To model the nonlinear structural characteristics of flexible high aspect ratio wings, a two-dimensional geometric nonlinear methodology, based on a 6 degree-of-freedom (DOF) beam finite element, is extended to three dimensions based on a 12 DOF beam finite element. The three-dimensional analysis is developed in order to capture the nonlinear torsion-bending coupling, which is not accounted for by the two-dimensional nonlinear methodology. Validation of the three-dimensional nonlinear structural approach against experimental data shows that the approach accurately predicts the geometric nonlinear bending and torsion due to bending for configurations of general interest. Torsion is slightly overpredicted in extreme cases and higher order modeling is then required.; The three-dimensional nonlinear beam model is then coupled with an Euler/Navier-Stokes computational fluid dynamics (CFD) analysis. Solving the equations numerically for the two nonlinear systems results in an increase in computational time and cost needed to perform the aeroelastic analysis. To improve the computational efficiency of the nonlinear aeroelastic analysis, the nonlinear structural approach uses a second-order accurate predictor-corrector methodology to solve for the displacements.; Static aeroelastic results are presented for an unswept and swept high aspect ratio wing in the transonic flow regime, using the developed nonlinear aeroelastic methodology. Unswept wing results show a reversal in twist due to the nonlinear torsion-bending coupling effects. Specifically, the torsional moments due to drag become large enough to cause the wing twist rotations to washin the wing tips, while the linear results show a washout twist rotation. The nonlinear twist results are attributed to the large bending displacements coupled with the large drag experienced by this flexible high aspect ratio wing at the transonic flow conditions. Swept wing results show that nonlinear torsion-bending effects tend to reduce the amount of washout as compared to a linear structural aeroelastic analysis making the wing more prone to tip stall.; Finally, this thesis lays the groundwork for further development of dynamic aeroelastic computational capabilities using nonlinear finite element methods coupled to nonlinear computational fluid dynamics methods.