Advanced Multidisciplinary Tool for Dynamic Loads Analysis of Aerospace Vehicles

Aerospace vehicles that perform aggressive maneuvers are subject to several dynamic loads problems such as buffet and flutter. Unsteady computational aeroelastic simulations of these problems require careful attention to the physical modules of fluid and structures, as well as, to the fluid-structure interfacing and fluid-grid movement. In the Phase I study, a novel solid-brick analogy (SBA) was developed to model deformation and motion of fluid mesh. The results showed that the novel SBA method prevents grid crossing, highly reduce grid distortion, and is computationally efficient with the use of modal superposition. Phase I study demonstrated the feasibility of the method for several aeroelastic problems. In Phase II, the main focus will be on coupling validated high-fidelity CSD, CFD codes and interface modules along with the SBA technology through MDICE, which is selected as the multiphysics computational framework. MDICE will provide automatic fluid-structure exchange and temporal synchronization of all physical modules. Additionally, the SBA module will be enhanced by; a) development of an adaptive window technique, b) adding capabilities to support multi-grid technologies and c) adding support for control surface motions. The computational framework will be validated and demonstrated for several dynamic loads problems, such as tail buffeting of F/A-18 and X-35, and wing flutter of F16 and AGARD wing. The proposed Phase II effort will result in a unique multiphysics framework to analyze and control dynamic loads problems of modern aerospace vehicles.