Aeroelastic Dynamic Analysis of a Full F-16 Configuration for Various Flight Conditions

Abstract

An overview is given of recent advances in a three-field methodology for modeling and solving nonlinear fluid-structure interaction problems, and its application to the prediction of the aeroelastic frequencies and damping coefficients of a full F-16 configuration in various subsonic, transonic, and supersonic airstreams is reported. In this three-field methodology the flow is described by the arbitrary Lagrangian-Eulerian form of the Euler equations, the structure is represented by a detailed finite element model, and the fluid mesh is unstructured, dynamic, and updated by a robust torsional spring analogy method. Simulation results are presented for stabilized, accelerated, low-g, and high-g flight conditions, and correlated with flight-test data. Consequently, the practical feasibility and potential of the described computational-fluid-dynamics-based computational method for the flutter analysis of high-performance aircraft, particularly in the transonic regime, are discussed.