Gust response analysis for high-aspect ratio wing

A theoretical nonlinear aeroelastic 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 flexible model wing undergoing gust load in time domain via discrete nonlinear finite element structural dynamic analysis and nonplanar unsteady vortex lattice aerodynamic computation. Also a dynamic perturbation analysis about a nonlinear static equilibrium is used to determine the small perturbation flutter boundary. A novel noncontact 3-D camera measurement analysis system is first used in wind tunnel test to obtain the spacial large deformation and responses. The responses of flexible wing under different static equilibrium states and frequency gust loads are discussed. The fair to good quantitative agreement between theoretical and experiment results demonstrate that the presented analysis method is an acceptable way to predict the geometrically nonlinear gust response for flexible wing.