Advanced aerodynamic modelling for the optimization of aircraft wing performance via aeroelastic tailoring

It has been widely acknowledged that the use of composite materials provides a great potential to improve the structural performance in aviation industry. Apart from the lightweight properties, the aeroelastic benefits provided by the composite materials such as drag reduction, gust response and wing designs in the increase of flutter speed could also substantially contribute the reduction of operational costs and emission. Recent work had approved the improved aeroelastic performance of aircraft wings through the optimal use of Variable Angle Tow (VAT) steered composite laminates. In this work, an advanced aerodynamic modelling is developed for the aeroelastic analysis of a rectangular unswept composite wing with VAT laminates. In the aerodynamic modelling, the classical thin plate theory is combined with steady aerodynamics VLM and unsteady aerodynamics DLM to model the aeroelastic behaviour of composite wings. The coupled steady and unsteady aerodynamic models are 3-D methods, which are widely used in industrial area due to their high accuracy and efficiency in flutter analysis for subsonic cases. The numerical results are obtained and demonstrated for the VAT composite wings with the linear variation of fibre angles on their aeroelastic performance such as divergence, flutter speed.