Numerical Simulation of Maneuvering Aircraft by Aerodynamic, Flight-Mechanics, and Structural-Mechanics Coupling

Selected results of the DLR project Simulation of Complex Maneuvers are presented. The objective of this project is to develop and validate a numerical tool to simulate the unsteady aerodynamics of a free-flying aeroelastic combat aircraft, by use of coupled aerodynamic, flight mechanics, and aeroelastic computations. To achieve this objective, the unstructured, time-accurate flow-solver TAU is coupled with a computational module solving the flight-mechanics equations of motion and a structural-mechanics code determining the structural deformations. The numerical results are validated by experimental data. For this purpose, several specific wind-tunnel experiments with different wind-tunnel models are carried out.