Tightly Coupled Aerothermoelastic Analysis Tool for Hypersonic Vehicle Structures

A tightly coupled multi-physics framework is proposed for computational aerothermoelastic simulations of hypersonic aerospace vehicles. The multiphysics framework will be developed, validated and demonstrated by enabling variable degree of coupled interactions between non-linear flexible structures, aerodynamics, and heat transfer modules. The framework will be developed by leveraging CFDRC''''s CoPhy, a sequentially tightly coupled high-fidelity multiphysics engineering analysis tool, and the Multi Disciplinary Computing Environment (MDICE) for loosely coupled aeroelastic and aerothermoelastic simulations. The Phase I effort focuses on determining the characteristics of high speed structural components and the extreme environments in which a tightly coupled aeroelastic & aerothermoelastic analysis is necessary. The feasibility of the proposed technology will be demonstrated for a set of benchmark aerothermoelastic applications. In Phase II, the efforts will be focused to minimize energy transfer errors by improving the coupling between the solvers across interfaces, improvements to the grid deformation module, engine noise modeling and enhancements to the overall framework. In addition, other thermal, structures and/or CFD modules can be identified and integrated into the MDICE framework. Demonstration of the full capabilities of the technology will be conducted for typical aerothermoelastic simulations of aerospace vehicles. BENEFIT: The proposed technology will provide an accurate and comprehensive analysis tool for truly coupled aerothermoelastic simulations of aerospace vehicles. The proposed technology will be of great interest to the Air Force to analyze interaction characteristics of fluid, structural, acoustic, thermal fields of hypersonic aerospace vehicles. The framework will also be of great interest to NASA, DoD agencies, and other aerospace private industry partners , in particular AFRL and Lockheed Martin who have been collaborating with CFDRC in this technology for several years. Ultimately, the framework will lead to improved safety of aerospace vehicles and significantly reduce the dependence on flight tests and wind tunnel testing, thereby reducing the time required to certify new military and commercial aircraft. General applications of the technology include general fluid-structure-thermal interaction problems such as heat exchanger vibration, panel flutter of space vehicles, turbomachinery blade vibrations and many others.