The Aeroelastic Simulation Department focuses on the numerical analysis of aeroelastic problems. Investigations for transport aircraft, small aircraft, turbomachines and rotorcraft are performed in close cooperation with the experimental activities of the institute.
Applications range from aeroelastic stability analyses (e.g. flutter analysis) and the exact calculation of unsteady airloads to the temporal and spatial coupling of fluid and structures. Furthermore, the dynamics of the aircraft at landing and the integration of aeroelastic methods into the design as well as multidisciplinary optimization are topics of current work.
Depending on the objective of the investigation, methods of different levels of complexity are available. Starting with aerodynamic panel codes, multibody dynamics and simple structural models, included are also high-fidelity methods like Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) and large finite element models.
The work is performed in close cooperation with internal and external partners. Those partners include other DLR institutes as well as industries and research institutes from Germany and Europe. The DLR Institute of Aeroelasticity has been cooperating with the DADS institute from ONERA for many years now.