A "Free" Approach to Computational Aeroelasticity

Abstract

In recent years some challenging aeroelastic problems have been tackled for the very rst time, such as the numerical study of transonic utter. To study those highly nonlinear phenomena the classical, computationally e cient, linearized numerical tools are not reliable. It is then necessary to focus on the more sophisticated mathematical models and numerical methods of Computational Aeroelasticity (CA). In this paper we demonstrate that a toolbox to e ectively solve non-linear aeroelastic problems can be built using (and improving) exclusively free software, such as the FE structural solver Code Aster and the FV aerodynamic solver OpenFOAM coupled by means of a robust interpolation scheme. The credibility of the developed set of analysis procedures is assessed on the aeroelastic benchmark test problem of computing the utter boundary for the AGARD 445.6 wing.