Multidisciplinary simulation of maneuvering aircraft interacting with atmospheric effects using the DLR TAU code

Kurzfassung

A multidisciplinary simulation environment based on the DLR TAU code has been developed which allows for the simulation of aircraft maneuvers as well as for the interaction of an aircraft with atmospheric effects such as gusts or wake vortices. To capture the unsteady reaction of the aircraft caused by the additional loads, TAU has been coupled to a six-degrees-of-freedom flight mechanics module. For validation of the CFD - flight mechanics coupling procedure, experimental data from a store release test case has been compared successfully against simulation results. To find proper initial conditions for the unsteady coupled computations, a trim procedure relying on a Newton algorithm has been employed. The trim procedure as well as the CFD - flight mechanics coupling has been used for the simulation of a horizontal turn of a generic fighter configuration. Both the trim procedure and the simulation of maneuvers require the movement of control surfaces. Techniques based on mesh deformation using radial basis functions and / or the Chimera technique have been developed and tested. The capability of the process chain has been demonstrated with unsteady coupled computations of a maneuver and gust encounters using a generic fighter configuration and an Airbus A340 configuration.