Multi-fidelity nonlinear aeroelastic analysis of a strut-braced ultra-high aspect ratio wing configuration

Nonlinear aeroelasticity of a strut-braced ultra-high aspect ratio wing aircraft is investigated using a multi-fidelity simulation environment. A baseline aeroelastic solver based on an unsteady vortex-lattice method and geometrically-exact composite beam model is coupled with a data-driven model order reduction tool based on high-fidelity aerodynamics. This provides sectional corrections, retrieved from a basis created using proper orthogonal decomposition, to the lower-order tools. Those corrections incorporate the three-dimensional and compressibility effects of the full strut-brace wing aircraft geometry and thus result in a computationally-efficient analysis framework suitable for multi-disciplinary design optimization. Verification of the reconstruction process is first presented, and the static and dynamic aeroelasticity of the strut-braced wing configuration are finally investigated.