Development and Validation of an Aerothermoelastic Analysis Capability

Coupled aerothermoelastic simulations are required for the accurate simulation of many high-speed flow problems. Hence, the multidisciplinary analysis of such problems is the main focus of the current work. In this study, flow simulations are carried out using a three-dimensional implicit finite volume computational fluid dynamics solver developed in house that has been well tested and validated through numerous previous studies. For the thermal and structural solutions, a finite element solver is used, which is also developed and validated in house. The coupled aerothermoelastic platform is validated in this work through two applications. In the first application, we compare computed solutions for flow over a hypersonic cylindrical leading edge with available experimental data. In the second application, we look at solutions for flow over an aerodynamically heated panel.