Aerodynamic and Static Aeroelastic Analysis of a High-Agility Aircraft

An aeroelastic dataset generation method for aircraft based on coupled computational fluid dynamics–computational structural mechanics (CFD-CSM) simulations and a Chimera approach for control surfaces is presented. The procedures are embedded in the multidisciplinary simulation environment SimServer. The TAU code is employed to solve the Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes equations. Structural displacements are computed with a modal solver. The dataset production tool is applied to a reconstruction of the Northrop F-5A aircraft, representing aerodynamic characteristics, including static aeroelastic effects. Control surface deflections of the leading-edge flaps, trailing-edge flaps, ailerons, and horizontal stabilizers are considered. The effects of control surface deflections on the flowfield as well as on the force and moment coefficients are analyzed. The influence of structural elasticity on the aircraft configuration is evaluated by comparing the aerodynamic coefficients of the aeroelastic simulations to those of the purely aerodynamic simulations, for which the aircraft is assumed to be fully rigid. In addition, variable dynamic pressure and variable inertia loads at several control surface deflection combinations are investigated. The results show that the structural elasticity of the aircraft significantly influences the aerodynamic force and moment coefficient characteristics for large regions of the flight envelope.