Aero-Structural Coupling in High Aspect Ratio Wings: A Unified Computational Approach

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A comprehensive numerical investigation of the coupled aero-structural behaviour of a high aspect ratio aircraft wing has been carried out using a unified Fluid-Structure Interaction (FSI) framework. Three distinct analyses, namely, one-way FSI, two-way steady-state FSI, and two-way transient FSI, have been conducted to evaluate differences in aerodynamic and structural responses under an integrated CFD & FEA environment. A high subsonic Mach number, M = 0.7, with range of angles of attack, a=0°-6° has been considered as the flow condition for the coupled fluid and structural analyses. For two-way coupling, surface pressure data from the fluid domain were transferred to the structural model using a customized system coupling method. A significant improvement in computational speed was achieved using a MATLAB-developed interpolation script, which helped reduce the number of CFD pressure data points by 86.0 %, with only minor deviations in the numerical results. Comparison of results between two-way and one-way FSI indicates significant difference in the aerodynamic coefficients, viz. CL and CD were higher by 7.46 % and 6.76 % at a=4°, while two-way transient FSI exhibited lower differences. Deformation increased by 9.11 % in two-way case when compared to one-way FSI analysis. The study also evaluated numerical damping and stability by varying the coupling time steps in transient analysis. These findings underscore the importance of coupled aero-structural and time-accurate FSI modelling for realistic aero-elastic predictions. Overall, the results demonstrate that two-way, time-accurate FSI provides more reliable aeroelastic response predictions for high-aspect-ratio flexible wings operating in high-subsonic regimes.

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