High-Fidelity Computational Simulation of Nonlinear Fluid-Structure Interactions

This paper reviews recent efforts to demonstrate a flexible computational framework for developing a high-fidelity, non-linear aeroelastic solver. A subiteration strategy is adopted to achieve implicit coupling between the computational fluid dynamics and the structural codes. The specific solver presented couples a well-validated, full Navier-Stokes code with a nonlinear finite element plate model. The versatility of the approach is shown by applications to several types of fluid-structure interaction problems including: panel flutter, delta wing LCO and delta wing buffet. The computational results are analyzed to elucidate the relevant physical phenomena involved in these complicated nonlinear fluid-structure interactions. This framework is extendible to other multidisciplinary problems where two or more disciplines may need to be coupled.