Gust response analysis and wind tunnel test for a high-aspect ratio wing

A theoretical nonlinear aeroelastic response analysis for a flexible high-aspect ratio wing excited by harmonic gust load is presented along with a companion wind tunnel test. A multidisciplinary coupled numerical calculation is developed to simulate the flexible model wing undergoing gust load in the time domain via discrete nonlinear finite element structural dynamic analysis and nonplanar unsteady vortex lattice aerodynamic computation. A dynamic perturbation analysis about a nonlinear static equilibrium is also used to determine the small perturbation flutter boundary. A novel noncontact 3-D camera measurement analysis system is firstly used in the wind tunnel test to obtain the spatial large deformation and responses. The responses of the flexible wing under different static equilibrium states and frequency gust loads are discussed. The fair to good quantitative agreements between the theoretical and experimental results demonstrate that the presented analysis method is an acceptable way to predict the geometrically nonlinear gust response for flexible wings.