Aeroelastic Effects in Maximum Lift Prediction of a Transport Aircraft and Comparison to Flight Data

Abstract

The virtual determination of maximum lift performance of a transport aircraft configuration taking into account static aeroelastic deformations at steady-state flight conditions is described. Within the scope of the national research project HINVA (High-Lift IN-Flight VAlidation) a fluid-structure interaction approach based on high-fidelity numerical fluid dynamics and structural analysis methods has been applied to DLR's Airbus A320-232 ATRA research aircraft in high-lift configuration. Numerical aeroelastic analyses were performed using an in-house simulation procedure built around DLR's flow solver TAU and the commercial finite-element analysis code NASTRAN R . Numerical results were validated against experimental data obtained from the first HINVA flight test campaign in July 2012.