Multi-fidelity Aerothermoelastic analysis of Advanced Propulsion Systems (MAAPS)

Design of new aircraft and propulsion systems, with added concerns for acoustic signatures and radar cross sections; are driving novel inlet and exhaust system designs. These advanced ducts are optimized for stresses, but often fail prematurely, due to fatigue constraints. Hence there is a need to transfer the unsteady loads generated by high-fidelity aerodynamics (LES) to the FEA for structures. This problem is challenging in its own right, but to add to that, there is a need for efficient solutions that can eventually be incorporated in design architectures. To address this need, IAI and its collaborators are developing a multi-fidelity aerothermoelastic analysis capability for unsteady flows. The idea is to tightly couple aerodynamics and structures, but also investigate methods that can increase efficiency without sacrificing accuracy. Leveraging on our prior work on aeroelastic analysis, structural design, multidisciplinary design optimization, LES and other high fidelity CFD techniques, we are developing the MAAPS framework, that will allow efficient aerostructural analyses and fatigue life estimation.