Title: Influence of aeroelastic flow induced oscillations on fatigue life of an airplane wing structure

Authors: J. Bruce Ralphin Rose; G.R. Jinu

Addresses: Department of Aeronautical Engineering, Regional Centre of Anna University, Tirunelveli, 627007, India ' Department of Mechanical Engineering, University College of Engineering, Nagercoil, 629004, India

Abstract: In the field of aeroelasticity, the phenomenon of dynamic vibrations and its prevention is a primary challenge that is imposed on an airplane designer. The fully coupled/partly coupled fluid-structure interaction (FSI) analysis is one of the widely used techniques implemented by design industries to assess the characteristics of limit cycle oscillations (LCO). It requires detailed computational modelling capabilities including a high speed wind tunnel testing environment. Hence, the partly coupled (or) moderate loosely coupled (MLC) FSI techniques are preferred to approximate the real phenomenon better than the quasi-steady models. The turbulence characteristics of a viscous flow field are computed efficiently by a reduced-order modelling approach that offers tractable solutions. This novel approach is used to determine the consequences of LCO on the fatigue life of an airplane wing structure. Further, the numerical fatigue simulations are used to demonstrate the effectiveness of MLC algorithm against experimental techniques.

Keywords: wind tunnel testing; fluid-structure interaction; FSI; limit cycle oscillations; LCO; high cycle fatigue; HCF; ANSYS; aeroelastic flow; fatigue life; airplane wings; wing structures; aeroelasticity; dynamic vibrations; aircraft design; turbulence modelling; viscous flow; reduced-order modelling; numerical simulation; computational fluid dynamics; CFD.

DOI: 10.1504/IJMIC.2016.075811

International Journal of Modelling, Identification and Control, 2016 Vol.25 No.3, pp.199 - 216

Received: 13 Mar 2015
Accepted: 27 Apr 2015
Published online: 06 Apr 2016 *

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