Aeroelastic trim and flight loads analysis of flexible aircraft with large deformations

A method for static aeroelastic trim analysis and flight loads computation of a flexible aircraft with large deformations has been presented in this paper, which considers the geometric nonlinearity of the structure and the nonplanar effects of aerodynamics. A nonplanar vortex lattice method is used to compute the nonplanar aerodynamics. The nonlinear finite element method is introduced to consider the structural geometric nonlinearity. Moreover, the surface spline method is used for structure/aerodynamics coupling. Finally, by combining the equilibrium equations of rigid motions of the deformed aircraft, the nonlinear trim problem of the flexible aircraft is solved by iterative method. For instance, the longitudinal trim analysis of a flexible aircraft with large-aspect-ratio wings is carried out by both the nonlinear method presented and the linear method of MSC Flightloads. Results obtained by these two methods are compared, and it is indicated that the results agree with each other when the deformation is small. However, because the linear method of static aeroelastic analysis does not consider the nonplanar aerodynamic effects or structural geometric nonlinearity, it is not applicable as the deformations increase. Whereas the nonlinear method presented could solve the trim problem accurately, even the deformations are large, which makes the nonlinear method suitable for rapid and efficient analysis in engineering practice. It could be used not only in the preliminary stage but also in the detail stage of aircraft design.