Date of Award

Spring 5-2019

Access Type

Thesis - Open Access

Degree Name

Master of Science in Aerospace Engineering

Department

Aerospace Engineering

Committee Chair

Claudia Moreno

First Committee Member

Ali Y. Tamijani

Second Committee Member

William MacKunis

Abstract

Correct prediction of aeroelastic response is a crucial part in designing flutter or divergence free aircrafts within a designated flight envelope. The aeroelastic analysis includes specifically tailoring the design in order to prevent flutter (passive control) or eliminate it by applying input on control surfaces (active control). High-fidelity models such as coupled Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) - Computational Structural Dynamics (CSD) can obtain full structural and aerodynamic behavior of a deformable aircraft. However, these models are so large that pose a significant challenge from the control systems design perspective. Thus, the development of an aeroelastic modeling software that can be used for further control design is the main motivation of this thesis. In addition, an aeroelastic analysis of a topologically optimized wing geometry will serve as a validation tool of the software. Initially, a 3D printed prototype of the wing is validated against static deformation tests as well as dynamic Ground Vibration Tests (GVT). The developed model is compared against the commercial software Nastran/Patran. Further plans include experimental aerodynamic test of 3D printed wing in the new Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University’s (ERAU) wind tunnel to validate the proposed model.

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