Aeroelastic analysis of finite wings coupled with rotating propellers

• Grant number: 24/17675-5
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships abroad - Research Internship - Doctorate
• Start date: August 01, 2025
• End date: July 31, 2026
• Field of knowledge: Engineering - Mechanical Engineering
• Principal Investigator: Flávio Donizeti Marques
• Grantee: João Pedro Tavares Pereira dos Santos
• Supervisor: Cristina Riso
• Host Institution: Escola de Engenharia de São Carlos (EESC). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Carlos , SP, Brazil
• Institution abroad: Georgia Institute of Technology, United States
• Associated to the scholarship: 23/15547-7 - Aeroelastic analysis of highly flexible wings considering the coupling with rotating proppelers, BP.DR

Abstract

The electrification of aviation has led to new aircraft configurations that generally feature light wings with high aspect ratios coupled with several propellers along the wing span. When it comes to the so-called HALE (High-Altitude Long-Endurance) and EVTOLs (Electrical Vertical Take-Off and Landing) aircraft, the problem becomes even more complex, and the aeroelastic behavior of the system can be significantly affected. As propellers are flexibly attached to the wing, an aeroelastic instability called whirl flutter can occur. Additional forces and moments arise from the rotating blades, and the propeller hub describes a whirling motion due to gyroscopic effects. The literature shows that whirl flutter can cause failure of propeller-driven aircraft (Civil Aeronautics Board, 1959, 1960), so predicting this instability is a crucial step during the design of these aircraft, especially for novel and more flexible configurations. Therefore, the present research proposal aims to develop a computational model for the dynamic aeroelastic analysis of finite wings, with propeller-based propulsion that enables the prediction of whirl flutter phenomena. A nonlinear beam finite element formulation is proposed for the structural part of the aeroelastic wing modeling (Géradin and Cardona, 2001), coupled with both Peters' aerodynamic model (Peters et al., 1995) and the Unsteady Vortex Lattice Method (UVLM) (Katz and Plotkin, 1991). Furthermore, it is suggested that the Unsteady Vortex Lattice Method be applied to the wing and the propellers, aiming to analyze the aerodynamic influence that they exert on each other and its effects on the system's dynamic behavior. The study will be carried out through numeric simulation of the aeroelastic models, considering different configurations of propellers along the wing span.