Computational Aeroelasticity of Rotating Wings with Deformable Airfoils

This paper presents a simulation for high-fidelity aeroelastic analysis of rotating wings with camber-wise structural flexibility and embedded actuators. An unstructured Reynolds-Averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) computational fluid dynamics (CFD) solver is coupled with a non-linear structural dynamics analysis. The CFD solution uses overset grids to combine the stationary and moving frames of reference. The structural formulation expands the conventional one-dimensional beam representation with additional degrees-of-freedom to capture plate-like cross-sectional deformations while allowing an arbitrary distribution of active and passive materials in the cross section. Motion and forces on the non-coincident fluid and structural grids are transferred using a finite-element-based interpolation, along with a least-squares fit for extrapolations. Trim and convergence to periodic response are assisted by a low-order analysis that is also discussed. Finally, as an initial verification of the implementations, results from the low-order and CFD-based solutions are compared for a rigid-airfoil rotor in forward flight.