On the validation and use of high-fidelity numerical simulations for gust response analysis

TL;DR

This paper discusses the validation and application of high-fidelity CFD simulations for aircraft gust response analysis, highlighting their importance for accurate load prediction in safety-critical scenarios.

Contribution

The paper introduces high-fidelity CFD-based gust response simulations implemented in ONERA's elsA code, validated against experiments and applied to regional aircraft.

Findings

Validated CFD simulations against experimental data.

Compared different numerical gust modeling techniques.

Applied high-fidelity simulations to a regional aircraft case.

Abstract

Specific gust response is considered as one of the most important loads encountered by an aircraft. The Certification Specification (CS) 25, defined by the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA), and the Federal Aviation Regulations (FAR) 25, defined by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), describe the critical gusts that an aircraft must withstand. They must be analyzed for a large range of flight points (Altitude and Equivalent Air speed) and mass configurations. For some load cases, the standard tools could not be accurate enough to correctly predict the gust response and the use of high-fidelity computation could be required. Therefore, ONERA has implemented in its in-house Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) code elsA (ONERA-Airbus-Safran property) the capability to compute the high-fidelity aeroelastic gust response, directly in the time-domain, for different discrete gust shapes.This paper presents some recent work achieved at ONERA concerning high-fidelity simulations for gust response. First, a physical validation of the gust response simulation is performed by comparing the results to those obtained experimentally on a scaled model. Second, numerical comparisons are performed using various techniques, in order to model the gust. Finally, an application for generic regional aircraft is shown.