Fluid–structure interaction modelling of nonlinear aeroelastic structures using the finite element corotational theory

The application of the finite element corotational theory to model geometric nonlinear structures within a fluid–structure interaction procedure is proposed. A dynamic corotational approximately-energy-conserving algorithm is used to solve the nonlinear structural response and it is shown that this algorithm's application with a four-node flat finite element is more stable than the nonlinear implicit Newmark method. This structural dynamic algorithm is coupled with the unsteady vortex-ring method using a staggered technique. These procedures were used to obtain aeroelastic results of a nonlinear plate-type wing subjected to low speed airflow. It is shown that stable and accurate numerical solutions are obtained using the proposed fluid–structure interaction algorithm. Furthermore, it is illustrated that geometric nonlinearities lead to limit cycle oscillations.