Real Time Aeroservoelasticity Simulation Tool for Aircraft Life Prediction

Aircraft structure aging and life prediction require accurate prognosis of the dynamic loads, stress spectra and aircraft structure dynamic response leading to fatigue damage. CFDRC proposes to develop ultra-efficient physics-based computational aeroservoelasticity Reduced Order Models (ROM) for real-time prediction and simulation of aircraft dynamic loads, stress spectra and fatigue damage. The proposed effort distinguishing features are; (1) physics-based loads and stresses prediction tools, (2) nonlinear ROM techniques to address strong nonlinearity in maneuvering aircraft while retaining low model dimensions and ultra-fast simulation speed, and (3) ROM parameterization to enable ROMs valid for broad flight envelope and enhanced identification of triggering parameters of stress concentrations and cracks. In Phase I, feasibility of the approach was demonstrated by adaptation of CFD and ROM tools, generating high-fidelity training data and subsequent accurate and efficient ROM predictions for AGARD and generic aircraft configurations. Phase II focus will be on a) maturation of ROM tools to take into account both aerodynamic and structural nonlinearity effects, b) development of new stress spectra ROM model, c) software automation, parameterization and optimization, d) integration with AFRL-relevant 6-DOF, fatigue and damage tolerance analysis tools, and e) verification, validation and demonstration on Air Force aircraft platforms of interest.