Structural dynamic reanalysis method for transonic aeroelastic analysis with global structural modifications

Transonic aeroelastic analysis is an important aspect of modern aircraft design. When the modeshapes changed for the structural stiffness or/and mass matrix variation, the structural model and aerodynamic model could be reconstructed to maintain accuracy. However, these reconstruction procedures have to be repeated every time when there is a change in the aircraft structure design, where each of these reconstructions takes a considerable time. In this paper, an automated procedure for transonic aeroelastic analysis method was proposed when the structural model parameters changed at global level. To manage thousands of calculations and makes more efficient and reliable calculations, the structural dynamic reanalysis method was employed to set up an automated procedure to link the aeroelastic solvers and structural design parameters without changing structural modal coordinates. The proposed automated procedure was illustrated and verified by the AGARD 445.6 wing aeroelastic model with different global level structural parameter variations. The results show that the automated procedure can accurately produce pulse responses corresponding to the mode excitations and the flutter characteristics of AGARD 445.6 wing in a very large modification range. The whole automated procedure is efficient and reliable in managing transonic aeroelastic analysis when structural parameters changed at global level.