Patricia C. Teixeira, Carlos E. S. Cesnik
DOI Number: N/A
Conference number: IFASD-2017-061
Although propeller propulsion is present in many high-altitude long-endurance aircraft (e.g., Aerovironments Helios, University of Michigan‘s X-HALE UAS, etc.), the effect of the propeller slipstream on the aeroelastic behavior of such vehicles for coupled nonlinear aeroelastic-flight mechanics simulation is generally not taken into account. On the other hand, one important feature desired for aeroelastic tools is the capability of providing accurate results with small computational cost, eventually enabling real-time simulations. This work presents an enhancement to an existing aeroelastic framework that enables the investigation of propeller effects on very flexible aircraft. This is achieved by coupling a geometrically non-linear aeroelastic structural solver with an Unsteady Vortex Lattice code capable of dealing with high structural displacements for the aircraft lifting surfaces and a Lifting Line/Viscous Vortex Particle Method for the propeller effects and applying the enhanced framework to investigate the interference between a flexible wing and a propeller.