Assessing the Impact of Aerodynamic Modelling on Manoeuvring Aircraft

This paper investigates the impact of aerodynamic models on the dynamic response of a free-flying aircraft wing. Several options for the aerodynamics are evaluated, from two-dimensional thin aerofoil aerodynamics and unsteady vortex-lattice method up to computational fluid dynamics. A nonlinear formulation of the rigid body dynamics is used in all cases. Results are generated using a numerical framework that will allow in the near future multi-disciplinary fluid/structure/flight analysis. In this paper, flexibility effects are neglected. A validation for fluid/flight models is presented. The well-established approach based on stability derivatives is also used, and is found in good agreement with solutions obtained from linear aerodynamic models. The uncertainties in predicted trajectories of the free-flying wing are, in general, large and attributed to the aerodynamics only. This suggests that a careful control law synthesis should be done to account for uncertainties from modelling techniques