Impact of Aerodynamic Modeling on Aeroelastic Simulations of Straight and Swept wings

Highly flexible wings exhibit strong aeroelastic coupling, and the accuracy of static load and deformation predictions depends critically on the fidelity of the aerodynamic model. Previous studies on the Pazy wing benchmark have focused mainly on structural modelling while relying on low-order aerodynamic approaches. These studies showed that straight-wing response can be predicted reasonably well with simplified aerodynamics, whereas swept-wing cases exhibit larger discrepancies when the deformed three-dimensional geometry is not properly resolved. This suggests that the importance of aerodynamic fidelity depends strongly on wing planform and deformation characteristics.
This research investigates the static aeroelastic behaviour of the Pazy wing using three aerodynamic models of increasing fidelity, all coupled to the same linear elastic modal structural framework. The models considered are a reduced-order strip-theory, a potential-flow panel method implemented in FEMAP–Nastran, and the EZair Euler CFD solver. Straight, 10◦ swept, and 20◦ swept wing configurations are analysed over a range of freestream velocities and angles of attack within a deformation regime where the structural response remains predominantly linear. The comparison is based on key aerodynamic and structural response parameters, including spanwise aerodynamic load distribution, sectional lift variation, wing twist, twisting moment, and tip deflection, in order to isolate the influence of aerodynamic fidelity on the predicted static aeroelastic response.
The results show that, for the straight wing, all three approaches give broadly consistent predictions, indicating that low-order aerodynamic models are adequate for preliminary analysis in the linear deformation regime. For swept wings, however, bending–torsion coupling induces nose-down twist and inboard load shift, leading to increasingly noticeable differences between the low- and high-fidelity aerodynamic models. The largest discrepancies occur for the 20◦ swept configuration. These findings demonstrate that accurate static aeroelastic prediction of flexible swept wings requires aerodynamic models capable of resolving the actual deformed three-dimensional wing geometry.

This work is towards an M.Sc. degree under the supervision of Prof. Daniella Raveh, The Stephen B. Klein Faculty of Aerospace Engineering, Technion