Provably second-order time-accurate loosely-coupled solution algorithms for transient nonlinear computational aeroelasticity

A methodology for designing formally second-order time-accurate and yet loosely-coupled partitioned procedures for the solution of nonlinear fluid-structure interaction (FSI) problems on moving grids is presented. Its key components are a fluid time-integrator that is provably second-order time-accurate on moving grids, the midpoint rule for advancing in time the solution of the structural dynamics equations of motion, a second-order structure predictor for bypassing the inner-iterations encountered in strongly-coupled solution procedures, and a carefully designed algorithm for time-integrating the motion of the fluid-mesh. Following this methodology, two different loosely-coupled schemes are constructed for the solution of transient nonlinear FSI problems and proved to be second-order time-accurate. Three-dimensional numerical results pertaining to the simulation of the aeroelastic response to a gravity excitation of a complete F-16 configuration are also presented. In addition to confirming the theoretical results discussed in this paper, these numerical results highlight a very stable behavior of the designed loosely-coupled partitioned procedures. (c) 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.