With advanced subsonic transports and military aircraft operating in the transonic regime, it is becoming important to determine the effects of the coupling between aerodynamic loads and elastic forces. Since aeroelastic effects can contribute significantly to the design of these aircraft, there is a strong need in the aerospace industry to predict these aero-structure interactions computationally. To perform static aeroelastic analysis in the transonic regime, high fidelity computational fluid dynamics (CFD) analysis tools must be used in conjunction with high fidelity computational structural dynamics (CSD)analysis tools due to the nonlinear behavior of the aerodynamics in the transonic regime. There is also a need to be able to use a wide variety of CFD and CSD tools to predict these aeroelastic effects in the transonic regime. Because source codes are not always available, it is necessary to couple the CFD and CSD codes without alteration of the source codes. In this study, an aeroelastic coupling procedure is developed which will perform static aeroelastic analysis using any CFD and CSD code with little code integration. The aeroelastic coupling procedure is demonstrated on an F/A-18 Stabilator using NASTD (an in-house McDonnell Douglas CFD code)and NASTRAN. In addition, the Aeroelastic Research Wing (ARW-2) is used for demonstration of the aeroelastic coupling procedure by using ENSAERO (NASA Ames Research Center CFD code) and a finite element wing-box code (developed as a part of this research). The results obtained from the present study are compared with those available from an experimental study conducted at NASA Langley Research Center and a study conducted at NASA Ames Research Center using ENSAERO and modal superposition. The results compare well with experimental data. In addition, parallel computing power is used to investigate parallel static aeroelastic analysis because obtaining an aeroelastic solution using CFD/CSD methods is computationally intensive. A parallel finite element wing-box code is developed and coupled with an existing parallel Euler code to perform static aeroelastic analysis. A typical wing-body configuration is used to investigate the applicability of parallel computing to this analysis. Performance of the parallel aeroelastic analysis is shown to be poor; however with advances being made in the arena of parallel computing, there is definitely a need to continue research in this area. / Ph. D.

Les travaux de cette thèse s’inscrivent dans le cadre d’une collaboration CIFRE entre Naval Group, le Laboratoire d’Hydrodynamique, d’Energétique et d’Environnement Atmosphérique (LHEEA) de l’Ecole Centrale de Nantes et de l’Institut de Génie des Matériaux (GeM) de l’ICAM de Nantes, sur la problématique de développement d’hélices marines plus efficaces, plus discrètes, et plus respectueuses de l’environnement. Une des solutions passe par le développement de structures composites plus légères et plus flexibles, capables de se déformer passivement pour s’auto-adapter à l’écoulement incident grâce à leurs propriétés spécifiques de couplage flexion-torsion. En lien direct avec cette problématique, nous avons réalisé les travaux de thèse en deux temps. Nous avons dans un premier temps mis en place, montré la faisabilité et validé une méthode de couplage numérique fluidestructure implicite fort entre les codes commerciaux de CFD Starccm+ et de CSD Abaqus pour un cas d'application issu de résultats expérimentaux disponibles dans la littérature sur deux hydrofoils flexibles déformables. Puis dans un second temps nous avons développé, réalisé et testé, dans le tunnel hydrodynamique de l’Ecole Navale, un profil portant composite spécifiquement conçu pour s’approcher du comportement d’une hélice. L’étude expérimentale et numérique de cette configuration nous a permis i) d’éprouver l'utilisation en milieu académique et industriel de nouvelles méthodes expérimentales d'instrumentation d'une pièce composite par insertion directe de fibres optiques dans les plis de composite, et d'une méthode mixte numérique - expérimentale de calibration fine d'un modèle numérique structure ; ii) d’apporter un éclairage sur la physique de l'interaction fluidestructure se produisant sur une surface portante composite ; et iii) de préciser les limitations actuelles concernant la diffusion en milieu industriel de cette méthode de couplage numérique fluide-structure. / This Ph.D is sponsored by the French company Naval Group in collaboration with LHEEA Laboratory from Ecole Centrale de Nantes and GeM Institute from ICAM de Nantes, and deals with the development of new composite marine propellers with improved efficiency, improved acoustic discretion and more environment-friendly. One of the key solutions lies in the application of composite materials to marine structures, in order to benefit from their reduced weight, increased flexibility and bend-twist coupling capacity. Indeed, the latter enables the shape-adaptability of the structure to passively adapt to the incoming flow. To meet this challenge, we first set-up a tightly coupled numerical fluid-structure method using two commercial CFD (Starccm+) and CSD (Abaqus) solvers on two flexible hydrofoils and we validated this method against experimental results available in the literature. Second, we specifically developed a composite hydrofoil to behave closely like a marine propeller and tested it in the hydrodynamic tunnel of the Ecole Navale. Thanks to the combined experimental and numerical analysis of this composite hydrofoil we reached the following conclusions: i) we helped demonstrate the industrial application of a state-of-the-art strain measurement technique using optical fibers directly embedded within the composite plies, ii) we provided some insights into the physics of the fluid-structure interaction occurring on composite hydrofoils and iii) we presented the current limitations of this coupled numerical fluid-structure method relatively to its industrial application.

No description available.

Dynamic stall deeply affects the response of helicopter rotor blades, making its modeling accuracy very important. Two commonly used dynamic stall models were implemented in a comprehensive code, validated, and contrasted to provide improved analysis accuracy and versatility. Next, computational fluid dynamics and computational structural dynamics loose coupling methodologies are reviewed, and a general tight coupling approach was implemented and tested. The tightly coupled computational fluid dynamics and computational structural dynamics methodology is then used to assess the stability characteristics of complex rotorcraft problems. An aeroelastic analysis of rotors must include an assessment of potential instabilities and the determination of damping ratios for all modes of interest. If the governing equations of motion of a system can be formulated as linear, ordinary differential equations with constant coefficients, classical stability evaluation methodologies based on the characteristic exponents of the system can rapidly and accurately provide the system's stability characteristics. For systems described by linear, ordinary differential equations with periodic coefficients, Floquet's theory is the preferred approach. While these methods provide excellent results for simplified linear models with a moderate number of degrees of freedom, they become quickly unwieldy as the number of degrees of freedom increases. Therefore, to accurately analyze rotorcraft aeroelastic periodic systems, a fully nonlinear, coupled simulation tool is used to determine the response of the system to perturbations about an equilibrium configuration and determine the presence of instabilities and damping ratios. The stability analysis is undertaken using an algorithm based on a Partial Floquet approach that has been successfully applied with computational structural dynamics tools on rotors and wind turbines. The stability analysis approach is computationally inexpensive and consists of post processing aeroelastic data, which can be used with any aeroelastic rotorcraft code or with experimental data.

Helicopters in forward flight experience complex aerodynamic phenomena to various degrees. In low speed level flight, the vortex wake remains close to the rotor disk and interacts with the rotor blades to give rise to blade vortex interaction phenomena. In high speed flight, compressibility effects dominate leading to the formation of shocks. If the required thrust is high, the combination of high collective pitch and cyclic pitch variations give rise to three-dimensional dynamic stall phenomena. Maneuvers further exacerbate the unsteady airloads and affect rotor and hub design. The strength and durability of the rotor blades and hub components is dependent on accurate estimates of peak-to-peak structural loads. Accurate knowledge of control loads is important for sizing the expensive swash-plate components and assuring long fatigue life. Over the last two decades, computational tools have been developed for modeling rotorcraft aeromechanics. In spite of this progress, loads prediction in unsteady maneuvers which is critical for peak design loads continues to be a challenging task. The primary goal of this research effort is to investigate important physical phenomena that cause severe loads on the rotor in steady flight and in extreme maneuvers. The present work utilizes a hybrid Navier-Stokes/free-wake CFD methodology coupled to a finite element based multi-body dynamics analysis to systematically study steady level and maneuvering flight conditions. Computational results are presented for the UH-60A rotor for a parametric sweep of speed and thrust conditions and correlated with test data at the NFAC Wind Tunnel. Good agreement with test data has been achieved using the current methodology for trim settings and integrated hub loads, torque, and power. Two severe diving turn maneuvers for the UH-60A recorded in the NASA/Army Airloads Flight Tests Database have also been investigated. These maneuvers are characterized by high load factors and high speed flight. The helicopter experiences significant vibration during these maneuvers. Mean and peak-to-peak structural loads and extensive stall phenomena including an advancing side stall phenomena have been captured by the present analyses.

Simulations play an integral role in the understanding and development of rotor- craft aeromechanics. Computational Fluid Dynamics coupled with Computational Structural Dynamics (CFD/CSD) offers an excellent approach to analyzing rotors. These methods have been traditionally “loosely-coupled” where data are exchanged periodically, motion is prescribed for CFD, and the updated loads have a static component for CSD. Loosely-coupled CFD/CSD assumes the solution to be periodic, which may not be true for some simulations. “Tightly-coupled” CFD/CSD, where loads and motion are exchanged at each time step, does not make this periodic assumption and opens up new avenues of simulation to research. A major drawback to tightly-coupled CFD/CSD is an increase in computational cost. Different approaches are explored to reduce this cost as well as examine numerical implications in solutions from tightly and loosely-coupled CFD/CSD. A trim methodology optimized for tightly-coupled simulations is developed and found to bring trim costs within parity of loosely-coupled CFD/CSD simulations. Aerodynamic loading is found to be nearly similar for fixed controls. However, the lead-lag blade motion is determined to contain a harmonic in the tightly-coupled analysis that is not an integer multiple of the rotor speed. A hybrid CFD/CSD methodology employing the use of a free-wake code to model the far-field effects of the rotor wake is developed to aid in computational cost reduction. Investigation of this approach reveals that computational costs may be reduced while preserving solution accuracy. This work’s contributions to the community include the development of a trim algorithm appropriate for use in tightly-coupled CFD/CSD simulations along with a detailed examination of the physics predicted by loose and tight coupling for quasi-steady level flight conditions. The influence of the wake in such cases is directly examined using a modular hybrid coupling to a free-wake code that is capable of reduced cost computations.

The accurate prediction of rotor air loads is a current topic of interest in the rotorcraft community. The complex nature of this loading makes this problem especially difficult. Some of the issues that must be considered include transonic effects on the advancing blade, dynamic stall effects on the retreating blade, and wake vortex interactions with the blades, fuselage, and other components. There are numerous codes to perform these predictions, both aerodynamic and structural, but until recently each code has refined either the structural or aerodynamic aspect of the analysis without serious consideration to the other, using only simplified modules to represent the physics. More recent research has concentrated on combining high fidelity CFD and CSD computations to be able to use the most accurate codes available to compute both the structural and the aerodynamic aspects. The objective of the research is to both evaluate and extend a range of prediction methods comparing both accuracy and computational expense. This range covers many methods where the highest accuracy method shown is a delta loads coupling between an unstructured CFD code and a comprehensive code, and the lowest accuracy, but highest efficiency, is found through a free wake and comprehensive code coupling using simplified 2D aerodynamics. From here methods to improve the efficiency and accuracy of the CFD code will be considered through implementation of steady-state grid adaptation, a time accurate low Mach number preconditioning method, and the use of fully articulated rigid blade motion. The exact formulation of the 2D aerodynamic model used in the CSD code will be evaluated, as will efficiency improvements to the free wake code. The advantages of the free-wake code will be tested against a dynamic inflow model. A comparison of all of these methods will show the advantages and consequences of each combination, including the types of physics that each method is able to, or not able to, capture through examination of how closely each method matches flight test data.

Helicopters are versatile vehicles that can vertically take off and land, hover, and perform maneuver at very low forward speeds. These characteristics make them unique for a number of civilian and military applications. However, the radial and azimuthal variation of dynamic pressure causes rotors to experience adverse phenomena such as transonic shocks and 3-D dynamic stall. Adverse interactions such as blade vortex interaction and rotor-airframe interaction may also occur. These phenomena contribute to noise and vibrations. Finally, in the event of an engine failure, rotorcraft tends to descend at high vertical velocities causing structural damage and loss of lives. A variety of techniques have been proposed for reducing the noise and vibrations. These techniques include on-board control (OBC) devices, individual blade control (IBC), and higher harmonic control (HHC). Addition of these devices adds to the weight, cost, and complexity of the rotor system, and reduces the reliability of operations. Simpler OBC concepts will greatly alleviate these drawbacks and enhance the operating envelope of vehicles. In this study, the use of Gurney flaps is explored as an OBC concept using a physics based approach. A three dimensional Navier-Stokes solver developed by the present investigator is coupled to an existing free wake model of the wake structure. The method is further enhanced for modeling of Blade-Vortex-Interactions (BVI). Loose coupling with an existing comprehensive structural dynamics analysis solver (DYMORE) is implemented for the purpose of rotor trim and modeling of aeroelastic effects. Results are presented for Gurney flaps as an OBC concept for improvements in autorotation, rotor vibration reduction, and BVI characteristics. As a representative rotor, the HART-II model rotor is used. It is found that the Gurney flap increases propulsive force in the driving region while the drag force is increased in the driven region. It is concluded that the deployable Gurney flap may improve autorotation characteristics if deployed only over the driving region. Although the net effect of the increased propulsive and drag force results in a faster descent rate when the trim state is maintained for identical thrust, it is found that permanently deployed Gurney flaps with fixed control settings may be useful in flare operations before landing by increasing thrust and lowering the descent rate. The potential of deployable Gurney flap is demonstrated for rotor vibration reduction. The 4P harmonic of the vertical vibratory load is reduced by 80% or more, while maintaining the trim state. The 4P and 8P harmonic loads are successfully suppressed simultaneously using individually controlled multi-segmented flaps. Finally, simulations aimed at BVI avoidance using deployable Gurney flaps are also presented.

A Computational Fluid Dynamics/Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD/CSD) coupling interface was developed to obtain aeroelastic solutions of a morphing rotor. The methodology was implemented in Fully Unstructured Navier-Stokes (FUN3D) solver, which communicates aerodynamic forces on the blade surface to University of Michigan’s Nonlinear Active Beam Solver (UM/NLABS) and then imports structural deflections of the blade surface during each time step. Development of this methodology adds the capability to model elastic rotors with flexible airfoils. The method was validated through an aerodynamic work analysis, comparison of sectional blade loads and deflections with experimental data, and two-dimensional stability analyses for pitch/plunge flutter and camber flutter. Computational simulations were performed for a rotor in forward flight with the CFD/CSD solver and with a comprehensive CSD solver using finite-state (F-S) aerodynamics, and results were compared. Prescribed three-per-revolution camber deflections were then applied, and solutions of the CFD/CSD and comprehensive CSD computations indicated that three-per-revolution camber actuation has the potential to minimize hub forces and moments with deflections as small as 0.25%c. In anticipation of active rotor experiments inside enclosed facilities, the capability of CFD for accurately simulating flow inside enclosed volumes was examined. It was determined that URANS models are not suitable for rotor simulations in an enclosed facility, and components that are a distance of two to three rotor radii from the hub were also observed to have a large influence on recirculation and performance.