ICNPAA 2010: Mathematical Problems in
Engineering, Aerospace and Sciences

In spite of the recent development in computational aeroelasticity and CFD tools for unsteady flows, most of the aeroelastic stability analyses of wing structures in the transonic regime that are performed in engineering environment still rely on the application of correction methods to the aerodynamic loadings provided by linear aerodynamic theory based codes. However, there is lack of literature on the capabilities and limitations of each method, just as on their adequacy to each wing design or physical phenomenon involved. This paper presents a study on three different correction methods (NLR method – use of local Mach number; SKEM – Successive Kernel Expansion Method; Dau-Garner method), applied to three different wing structures (PAPA supercritical wing; AGARD 445.6 weakened wing; YXX airplane wing). Correlation between theoretical predictions and experiment indicates that distinct wing designs, dominated by dissimilar physical phenomena, require the use of different methods for accurate incorporation of the dominant nonlinear features to classical aeroelastic analysis tools.