SCIENCE CHINA

Technological Sciences
Progress of Projects Supported by NSFC

October 2012 Vol.55 No.10: 27002711

doi: 10.1007/s11431-012-4912-8

Aeroelastic trim and flight loads analysis of flexible aircraft with

large deformations
YANG Chao, WANG LiBo*, XIE ChangChuan & LIU Yi
School of Aeronautics Science and Engineering, Beihang University, Beijing 100191, China
Received January 5, 2012; accepted March 1, 2012; published online June 20, 2012

A method for static aeroelastic trim analysis and flight loads computation of a flexible aircraft with large deformations has
been presented in this paper, which considers the geometric nonlinearity of the structure and the nonplanar effects of aerodynamics. A nonplanar vortex lattice method is used to compute the nonplanar aerodynamics. The nonlinear finite element
method is introduced to consider the structural geometric nonlinearity. Moreover, the surface spline method is used for structure/aerodynamics coupling. Finally, by combining the equilibrium equations of rigid motions of the deformed aircraft, the
nonlinear trim problem of the flexible aircraft is solved by iterative method. For instance, the longitudinal trim analysis of a
flexible aircraft with large-aspect-ratio wings is carried out by both the nonlinear method presented and the linear method of
MSC Flightloads. Results obtained by these two methods are compared, and it is indicated that the results agree with each other when the deformation is small. However, because the linear method of static aeroelastic analysis does not consider the nonplanar aerodynamic effects or structural geometric nonlinearity, it is not applicable as the deformations increase. Whereas the
nonlinear method presented could solve the trim problem accurately, even the deformations are large, which makes the nonlinear method suitable for rapid and efficient analysis in engineering practice. It could be used not only in the preliminary stage
but also in the detail stage of aircraft design.
static aeroelasticity, trim, flight loads, nonplanar aerodynamics, geometric nonlinearity, vortex lattice method
Citation:

Yang C, Wang L B, Xie C C, et al. Aeroelastic trim and flight loads analysis of flexible aircraft with large deformations. Sci China Tech Sci, 2012,
55: 27002711, doi: 10.1007/s11431-012-4912-8

1 Introduction
High-altitude long-endurance unmanned aerial vehicle
(HALE UAV) is a research focus of aeronautics in recent
years. In order to satisfy the requirement of long endurance,
high-aspect-ratio wings with advanced composite materials
are commonly used because of their high lift-drag ratio and
low structural weight, for example, the Global Hawk, the
Helios, and the Sensorcraft with flying wing [1] or joint
wing [2] configurations. Therefore, the structures of the
aircraft (especially the slender wings) always have noticea-

*Corresponding author (email: wanglibo@ase.buaa.edu.cn)

Science China Press and Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2012

ble structural flexibility. A geometric nonlinear problem

may occur when the wings undergo large deformation.
Aeroelastic characteristics of a highly flexible aircraft were
investigated by van Schoor and von Flotow [3] using a mode
method. The complete aircraft was modeled using a few
modes of vibration, including the rigid-body modes. Results
of linear aeroelastic and flight dynamic analysis for a HALE
aircraft were presented by Pendaries [4]. The results highlighted the effect of wing flexibility on the aeroelastic characteristics of the wing and the flight dynamic characteristics of
the aircraft. Both analyses, though focusing on the aeroelastic
characteristics of high-aspect-ratio wing, were linear and did
not take into account the geometrical nonlinearities induced by
large deflections.
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Plenty of research works have been carried out by domestic

and foreign scholars on the geometrical nonlinear aeroelastic
problems of large-aspect-ratio wings. Patil and Hodges [57]
studied the effect of structural geometric nonlinearities on the
static and dynamic aeroelastic characteristics of large-aspectatio wings. A geometrically-exact beam theory was used for
the structural analysis, and the ONERA nonlinear aerodynamic model [8] was used for aerodynamics computations.
Xie et al. [9, 10] investigated the aeroelastic characteristics of
a metal single-spar wing under large deformation with the
structural nonlinear finite element method and the generalized
strips theory or the 3-D lifting line theory [11]. The flutter
characteristics of the wing were also predicted using the linearized method. The nonlinear static aeroelastic responses were
also solved by Palacios and Cesnik with a coupled computational fluid dynamics/computational structural dynamics
(CFD/CSD) methodology [12].
The trim analysis and flight loads computation are the essential parts of the aircraft design progress, which are also the
important bases for the structure design. For the linear static
aeroelastic analysis method as the MSC Flightloads [13], the
assumption of infinitesimal deformation is adopted, the linear
finite element method is used to consider the structural elasticity, and the planar doublet lattice method is used to compute
the aerodynamics. Finally, the trim results are solved by the
linear equilibrium equations of static aeroelasticity. However,
when the structure undergoes large deformation, the aerodynamic configuration of the aircraft will be changed, and significant nonplanar aerodynamic effects will occur. Moreover,
the structural stiffness will also be affected by the large deformation, and the structural nonlinearity should be concerned.
The traditional linear aeroelastic theories based on the infinitesimal deformation assumption fail to accurately analyze
such deformation and aeroelastic characteristics of flexible
aircraft undergoing such a structural deformation.
Unlike the research status of a single wing with large deformation, only limited research work has been conducted on
the trim analysis, flight loads computation, and dynamic aeroelastic analysis of a complete aircraft undergoing large deformations. Patil [14] and Zhang [15] developed a methodology
by combining the nonlinear beam model and the ONERA
aerodynamics model. Besides, few methods were developed.
During engineering practice, a complex 3-D aircraft structure
is usually modeled by the finite element method with
shell-beam elements, which is difficult to model as a single
beam. Moreover, the accuracy of nonplanar aerodynamic analysis methods that are used, such as the ONERA model, generalized strip theory and 3-D lifting line theory, always depends on the values of empirical parameters, e.g., the slope of
the lift curve of airfoils. However, the CFD/CSD coupling
calculation always requires a considerable amount of computation resources and computation time. Therefore, it is necessary to develop an efficient trim analysis and flight loads
computation method considering the effects of structural nonlinearity and nonplanar aerodynamics for engineering use to

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provide considerable assistance to aircraft designers.

A method for the static aeroelastic trim analysis and flight
loads computation of a flexible aircraft with large deformations has been presented in this paper, which considers the
geometric nonlinearity of the structure and the nonplanar effects of aerodynamics. A nonplanar vortex lattice method is
used to compute the nonplanar aerodynamics. The nonlinear
finite element method is introduced to consider the structural
geometric nonlinearity. Moreover, surface spline method is
used for structure/aerodynamics coupling. Finally, by combining the equilibrium equations of rigid motions of the deformed aircraft, the nonlinear trim problem of the flexible
aircraft is solved by iterative method. For instance, the longitudinal trim analysis of a flexible aircraft with large-aspectratio wings is carried out by both the nonlinear method presented and the linear method of MSC Flightloads. Results
obtained by these two methods are also compared.

2 Theory
2.1 Geometric nonlinear elasticity
The structure of the flexible aircraft, especially the long
slender flexible wings, experiencing large aerodynamic
forces has finite bending and torsion deflection, so the infinitesimal deformation condition is disobeyed. On the other
hand the material is thought to be not beyond the elastic
limitation for the small strain. This results in the nonlinear
geometric equation, including the quadric term of the displacement differential, and the nonlinear force equilibrium
equation established based on the deformed state of the
structure. The incremental finite element method is commonly used to solve structural geometric nonlinear problems. The method has two formulas called the total Lagrange formulation (TLF) and the updated Lagrange formulation (ULF). The ULF [16] is presented and is used in
the current work.
The relationship between the nonlinear Lagrange/Green
strain and displacement is
t

1
2

ij ( t ui , j t u j ,i t uk ,i t uk , j ),

(1)

where tui, j indicates the partial derivative of displacement

component ui for the coordinate xj at time t. The conjugate
Kirchhoff stress tensor Sji at time t satisfies
t

S ji t n j t ds t xi , j t dT j ,

(2)

where tnj is the direction cosine of the small area element ds

at time t, and dTj is the corresponding surface force in which
the follower force effect is considered. The linear elastic
constitutive relation is presented as follows
t

Sij Dijkl t kl ,

(3)

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where Dijkl is the elastic tensor, which has a different form

for isotropic or anisotropic materials.
The finite element method (FEM) based on energy principle is an effective approach to solve the structural problems. For the geometric nonlinear problems with follower
forces, the incremental FEM is used. The strain ij can be
decomposed into a linear part eij and a nonlinear part ij:
t

ij t eij tij .

(4)

The stress is decomposed by increments, where tSij represents the equilibrium stress at time t, and tij represents the
incremental stress to be calculated at each time step.
t t

Sij t ij t Sij .

(5)

The integral equation is established by linearization in

each incremental step:

t t

Q t ij eij d V ,

Vortex lattice model for a thin lifting surface.

Dijkl t ekl t eij d tV t t ij tij d tV

V

(6)

where t+tQ is the incremental outer force including the

aerodynamic force, engine thrust, and gravity, at the new
time step. Considering a number of shape functions, the
relationship between strain and deformation is presented as
t

e t BL u ,

(7)

t BNL u.

Substituting these shape functions into eq. (6) leads to the

element governing equation [17]
( t K L t K NL )u

2.2

Figure 1

t t

Q tF.

(8)

Nonplanar vortex lattice method

The nonplanar aerodynamics of a deformed aircraft is

computed by the nonplanar vortex lattice method. A Cartesian coordinate system is selected for aerodynamic analysis
[18]. The x axis points from the nose to the tail along the
free stream, the y axis points to the right side on the same
level, and the z axis is defined by the right-hand rule. As
shown in Figure 1, the thin-wing platform is represented by
its middle camber surface, and then it is divided into panels
containing vortex ring singularities. Some typical panel elements are shown in Figure 2. Each vortex ring consists of
four segments of a vortex line, and the leading segment of
the vortex ring is placed on the panels quarter chord line.
The aerodynamics of the panel acts on the midpoint of the
segment (represented by in Figure 2). The collocation
point (represented by in Figure 2) is at the center of the
three-quarter chord line, and at this point, the actual boundary condition will be implemented.
The velocity induced at an arbitrary point by a typical

Figure 2

Arrangement of the vortex ring elements.

vortex ring can be calculated by applying the Biot-Savart

law [18] to the rings four segments, except for the rings
located at the trailing edge of the thin-wing platform. The
latter vortex ring is different from the normal ones; two
semi-infinite trailing vortex lines that model the wake are
shed into the flow along the x axis at each trailing edge panel, as shown in Figure 2. Instead of the rear segment of the
vortex ring, the effect of these two semi-infinite trailing
vortex lines should be considered when the velocity by a
trailing edge vortex ring element is computed. Then the
induced velocities at all of the collocation points could be
represented as
Vx WCx ,
V y WCy ,

(9)

Vz WCz ,

where Vx, Vy, and Vz are the induced velocity components

along the x, y, and z axes; WCx, WCy, and WCz are their influence coefficients matrixes; and is the vortex strength
vector of all the vortex rings.
To search for a singularity distribution that creates enclosed streamlines, the Neumann boundary condition [19] is
used. For the collocation point of the i-th panel element,
there is
(V Vii )ni 0,

(10)

where V is the velocity of the free stream. When the angle

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of attack and the angle of sideslip are both small, V=

[1 ]TV; Vii is the induced velocity at the i-th collocation point, Vii =[Vixi Viyi Vizi]T; ni is the normal vector of the
i-th panel element.
The aerodynamic increments due to the deflection of
control surfaces are only considered in the boundary condition, therefore, the vortex lattices that represent the control
surface are not rotated physically. i represents the deflection angle of the i-th vortex lattice due to the associate control surface. The normal vector of the i-th panel element is
ni n0i ci i ,

(11)

where ni=[n0xi n0yi n0zi] represents the initial normal vector

of the i-th panel element when the control surface has zero
deflection; ci=[cxi cyi czi]T is the coefficient vector related to
the rotation axis of the control surface. Expanding eq. (10)
yields
Viyi
Viyi
Vixi
n0 xi
n0 yi
n0 zi
V
V
V
n0 xi n0 yi n0 zi cxi i .

(12)

Assumes the aircraft has nc control variables represented as

c1 , c2 ,..., cnc . Let =/V, and express the boundary
condition equations of all the collocation points by matrix
AAIC A 0 A A Ac j c j ,

(13)

where AAIC is the influence coefficient matrix of the normal

induced velocity; A0 is the coefficients vector that represents the local angle of attack initialization of each panel
element; Aa and A are the coefficient vectors related to the
angle of attack and the angle of sideslip, respectively; and
Ac j is the coefficient vector related to the control variable

c .
j

The aerodynamic force that acts on the i-th panel element

could be computed by the Kutta-Jukovski theory [18]
f Ai V Fi ,

(14)

where is the air density, Fi is the total vortex strength at

the i-th panel elements quarter chord line, Fi=liFiV has
different values depending on whether the panel is the leading edge panel or not, and li is the vector describing the
magnitude and direction of the i-th panel elements quarter
chord line. Fi=i when the panel is located on the leading
edge of the wing, and Fi=ii1 when it is not.
Expanding eq. (14) yields
l yi lzi

2
f Ai V lzi lxi Fi .
(15)
l l
xi
yi

Then, the linear aerodynamic forces of all the panels along

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the three axes of the aerodynamic coordinates are

1
FAx 2QD C xT AAIC
A 0 A A Ac j c j

1
FAy 2QD C yT AAIC
A 0 A A Ac j c j

, (16)

1
FAz 2QD C z T AAIC
A 0 A A Ac j c j

where QD is the flight dynamic pressure; Cx, Cy, and Cz are

the coefficient matrixes for the aerodynamic force component, respectively; and T is the transfer matrix for the vortex strength.
2.3 Surface splines for aerodynamic/structure coupling
The surface spline is used for the coupling of aerodynamics
and structure. The configuration of the structure is usually
considered to be embedded in a 3-D space. The undeformed
configuration could be 1-D, 2-D, or 3-D, and the deformed
configuration is usually 3-D.
Considering n given structural grids with the coordinates
XS and the corresponding deformation vector US, the relationship between the coordinates and the deformation of the
grids could be represented by a surface spline fitting function, which could be written in matrix form [20]
ASC WS ,

(17)

where AS and WS are the constants matrixes according to the

coordinates and the deformation of the given grids,
WS =[034 U ST ]T ; C is the coefficient matrix of the surface

spline fitting function. When AS is nonsingular, C could be

solved as
C AS1WS .

(18)

Then the deformation vector UA of m aerodynamic grids

with the coordinates of XA could be interpolated
U A AA AS1WS ,

(19)

where AA is the constant matrix according to the given coordinates of aerodynamic grids. WS gets its first four rows
zeroed, so eq. (19) is transferred to
U A GU S ,

(20)

where G is the spline matrix for displacement interpolation

between the aerodynamic grids and structural grids. Which
means that the matrix AA AS1 removes its first four columns, and then yields the spline matrix G.
In aeroelastic analysis, the transformation between the
aerodynamic and the structural force systems requires stru-

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cture equivalence rather than static equivalence. Structure

equivalence means that the two force systems deflect the
structure equally. When the aerodynamic forces FA and
their equivalent structure forces FS do the same virtual work
on their virtual deflections respectively, the structure equivalence of the two force systems is guaranteed [21]:

U AT FA U ST FS ,

(21)

where UA and US are the arbitrary virtual deflections,

respectively, satisfying eq. (20). The nonplanar aerodynamic force computed is FA=[FAx FAy FAz]. Therefore,
FS G T FA .

Figure 3

(22)

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2.4

Static aeroelastic trim analysis methodology

As the analysis flow chart illustrated in Figure 3, the geometric nonlinear static aeroelastic trim analysis is solved by
iterative calculation of two coupling modules, which are the
module for aerodynamics and rigid trim analysis and the
module for structural nonlinear static analysis.
The procedure for the geometric nonlinear statics aeroelastic trim analysis starts with appropriate aerodynamic and
structure modeling and initialization, and then iterative calculation is followed. For each cycle of computation, the
aerodynamic model is updated according to the structure
deflection gained in the previous cycle. Based on the updated aerodynamic and structure models, the equilibrium

Flow chart for the geometric nonlinear static aeroelastic trim analysis.

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equations of rigid motions of the deformed aircraft are established. The trim variables of the flexible aircraft, as the
angle of attack and control surface deflection cj, are
solved by the equilibrium equations. The trimmed aerodynamic loads are then calculated and applied to the undeformed structure, and the structure deformation is solved by
ULF. Both the aerodynamic loads and inertial loads are
treated as follower forces. As one cycle finishes, the deformations of specified grids will be evaluated and tested for
termination. If the termination criteria are not met, a new
iterative cycle will be excited. The procedure will not be
ended until the termination criteria are met.
When establishing the equilibrium equations of motions
of the aircraft, the earth coordinate system OXYZ [22] is
treated as the inertial system, and the mean axes system
oxyz [23] is selected for the body reference coordinate system. The origin of the mean axes system o coincides with
the transient center of gravity of the aircraft, the x axis
points from the nose to the tail along the fuselage axis, the y
axis points to the right side perpendicular to the longitudinal
symmetric plane of the aircraft, and the z axis is defined by
the right-hand rule. According to the Hamilton principle
[24], the equations of rigid motions of the deformed aircraft
in the mean axes system can be represented as
MV M TV FAr FTr Mgm ,
M Ar M Tr ,
I I

(23)

where M and I are the mass and inertia matrix of the deformed aircraft, respectively; V and are the velocity vector and angular velocity vector between the mean axes oxyz
and the inertial system OXYZ, respectively; FAr and MAr are
the resultant force and moment of aerodynamics, respectively; FTr and MTr are the resultant force and moment of
thrust and other external forces; gm is the acceleration vector
of gravity in the mean axes system.
The equations for trim analysis are transferred from eqs.
(23) according to the flight status. Take the straight and
level flight for example, which means V 0, 0, and
0, and set for the angle of attack of the airplane in
the trim condition, and e for the elevator deflection. Moreover, it is assumed that the drag of the aircraft could be always balanced by the engine thrust. Therefore, the equilibrium equations of the rigid motions of the aircraft in the s-th
cycle are
s 1

L s

s 1

M s

s 1

L e s e

s 1

M e s e

s 1

L0 Mg ,

s 1

M 0 0,

(24)

where s1L, s1Le, s1M, and s1Me are respectively the

derivatives of the total lift and pitch moment due to the angle of attack and elevator deflection obtained from the s-1th
cycle; s1L0 and s1M0 are respectively the total lift and pitch
moment of the aircraft when both of the angle of attack and

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elevator deflection equal to zero; they are all obtained from

the aerodynamics eqs. (16); g is the acceleration of gravity.

3 Numerical example
3.1

Model

For instance, the longitudinal aeroelastic trim analysis of a

semispan subscale model of a flexible aircraft is conducted.
As shown in Figure 4, the flexible aircraft has a conventional aerodynamic configuration, large-aspect-ratio wings,
and all-movable horizontal tail. The design parameters are
shown in Table 1.
A single spar with a uniform rectangular cross section is
chosen for the stiffness simulation of the wing. The spar
made form spring steal is located on the 50% chord line of
the wing, and the dimensions of the cross section are 7.03
mm1.14 mm. The density of the material is 7.6103 kg/m3,
and the modulus is 230 GPa. The wing shape is simulated
by twelve wing sections made from balsa wood and cotton
paper. Each section attaches to the wing spar with a single
point. Enough clearance is left between each section to
make sure that no stiffness will be added to the wing spar by
the external shell. There is also a wingtip store to regulate
the flutter characteristics. The wingtip store is 150 mm long
and weights 31.5 g. The fuselage of the aircraft is simulated
by a single beam. The horizontal tail has a similar structure

Figure 4
Table 1

The layout of the flexible aircraft.

The design parameters of the flexible aircraft model

Item
Value
Semispan of the wing (mm)
487
Chord of the wing (mm)
60
Airfoil of the wing
NACA0015
Length of the fuselage (mm)
305
Semispan of the horizontal tail (mm)
72
Chord of the horizontal tail (mm)
36
Airfoil of the horizontal tail
NACA0009
Horizontal tail volume
0.293
Rotation axis of the horizontal tail
39% Cht a)
Longitudinal location of the center of gravity
30% Cw b)
Weight of the structure (g)
85
Note: a) Chord of the horizontal tail; b) chord of the wing.

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type to the wing. Compare with the flexible wing, the fuselage and horizontal tail are much stiffness, and could be
treated as rigid bodies.
An aeroelastic analysis model of the aircraft is established. The structural finite element model shown in Figure
5 uses the beam elements and lumped mass elements for the
stiffness and mass simulation. Figure 6 shows the aerodynamic model of the undeformed aircraft, and there are 648
vortex lattices for the wing and 105 vortex lattices for the
horizontal tail. The longitudinal trim characteristics of the
flexible aircraft in different flight conditions are analyzed
by both the nonlinear method presented (represented by
label Nonlinear) and the linear method of MSC Flightloads (represented by label Linear). Results obtained by
these two methods are compared.
3.2 Longitudinal trim analysis of the flexible aircraft
with different weights
Different counterweights are added to the center of gravity
of the aircraft, in order to keep its location fixed, then the
longitudinal trim analysis is conducted. The results are
shown in Figures 713. The label Rigid represents the
results obtained from the trim analyses of MSC Flightloads
that do not consider the structural elasticity.
Figures 79 illustrate the variation of the trim variable
with the aircraft weight, when the aircraft is in a straight and
level flight with a uniform speed of 30 m/s. The angle of
attack , elevator deflection e, displacements Tx, Ty, Tz and
torsion angle at the wing tip are all discussed. The result
shows that the vertical displacement at the wing tip is less
than 15% of the semi wing span when the aircraft has a light
weight (M<200 g). Both the results obtained by the linear
and nonlinear methods agree with each other. As the structural deformation increases with the aircraft weight, the

Figure 5

The structural finite element model.

Figure 6

The aerodynamic model.

October (2012) Vol.55 No.10

lateral displacement of the wing will become much more

significant, and this will considerably decrease the lift generating efficiency of the aircraft. Therefore, the nonlinear
result shows that the angle of attack and elevator deflection
needed for longitudinal trim increase nonlinearly with the
aircraft weight, and so does the difference between the linear and nonlinear results. When the aircraft is much heavier
(M>400 g), the vertical displacement at the wing tip will be
larger than 55% of the semi wing span, and the lateral displacement at the wing tip will also increase rapidly (more
than 20% of the semi wing span, even reaches half of the
semi wing span). That leads to a rapid increase of the angle
of attack, and a rapid increase of elevator deflection because
of the variation of pitch moment. The displacements and
torsion angle at the wing tip also increase nonlinearly with
the aircraft weight, and approach to a limit level, which is
an important deformation characteristic of a wing with limit
span.
An assumption of structural infinitesimal deformation is
adopted in the linear aeroelastic trim analysis. The aerodynamics is computed by planar doublet lattice method. The
loads and the deformations are solved in the neighborhood
of undeformed configuration. The linear results show that
the angle of attack, elevator deflection, and vertical displacement and torsion angle at the wing tip keep increasing
linearly with the aircraft weight. In the planar doublet lattice
method, the flat plate aerodynamic model of lifting surface
is not supposed to be deformed with the structure, and the
elastic deformation is only used to update the boundary
condition of the collocation point. Therefore, the angle of
attack and elevator deflection obtained by the linear method
are smaller than the rigid result and nonlinear result.
Figure 10 illustrates the variations of the aerodynamic
loads (the shear force FAero, the bending moment MAero, the
torsion moment TAero) and total loads (the shear force FTotal,
the bending moment MTotal, the torsion moment TTotal) at the
wing root with the aircraft weight when the aircraft is in a
straight and level flight with a uniform speed of 30 m/s. A
local coordinate system locates on each wing profile is used
for loads description, its z axis coincides with the normal
vector of the deformed wing, and it could be transferred
from the aerodynamic coordinate system by rotating around
the x axis. The shear force is positive when it points upwards, the bending moment is positive when the upper surface of the wing is compressed, and the torsion moment is
positive when the leading edge of the wing moves upwards.
The total loads herein represent the summation of the aerodynamic loads and the inertia loads.
As the nonlinear aeroelastic trim analysis shows, the
structural deformation of the wing increases nonlinearly
with the aircraft weight. Because of the large deformation,
the lateral component of aerodynamics that is produced by
the outer part of the wing becomes much larger than the lift
component, and this makes the wing have a low lift generating efficiency. Moreover, the mass distribution and inertia

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Figure 7

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Angle of attack and elevator deflection vs. aircraft weight (V=30 m/s).

Figure 8

Displacement at the wing tip vs. aircraft weight (V=30 m/s).

Figure 9

Torsion angle at the wing tip vs. aircraft weight (V=30 m/s).

loads of the aircraft are also affected by the large deformation obviously. Consequently, the banding moment and
torsion moment at the wing root increase nonlinearly, and
the trend is that if the deformation of the wing becomes
much larger, the bending moment increases much faster. On
the contrary, the linear method shows that the shear force,
bending moment and torsion moment at the wing root keep
increasing linearly with the aircraft weight all the time.
The bending moment at the wing root is an essential de-

sign consideration for the aircraft design, and the calculation accuracy may have an important influence on the
structural design. Figure 11 shows the variations of the differences between bending moments at the wing root that are
obtained by the linear and nonlinear methods with the vertical displacement at the wing tip. The result shows that
when the vertical displacement at the wing tip is 22% of the
semi wing span, the difference of the aerodynamic bending
moments at the wing root is approximately 2%, and the dif-

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Figure 10

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Load at the wing root vs. aircraft weight (V=30 m/s).

ference of the total bending moment is approximately 5%.

When the vertical displacement at the wing tip reaches 33%
of the semi wing span, the difference of the aerodynamic
bending moment at the wing root increases to 5%, and the
difference of the total bending moment increases to 9%.
Figure 12 compares the initial configuration with the deformed configuration of the aircraft weighted 400 g when it
is in a straight and level flight with a uniform speed of 30
m/s, and Figure 13 illustrates the spanwise distributions of
the aerodynamic loads and total loads on the slender wing.
The results show that the large structural deformation will
have a great effect on the load magnitude and spanwise distribution.
3.3 Longitudinal trim analysis of the flexible aircraft
with different flight speeds

Figure 11 Difference of bending moment at the wing root vs. vertical

displacement at the wing tip.

In order to further study the static aeroelastic trim characteristics of the very flexible aircraft undergoing large deformations, the trim parameters of the aircraft weighted 400
g with different flight speeds have also been analyzed, the
results are shown in Figures 1416.
Figures 14 and 15 illustrate the variations of the angle of
attack, elevator deflection and displacement at the wing tip
with the flight speed. The results indicate that the angle of
attack and elevator deflection of the flexible aircraft that has
a fixed weight decrease as the flight speed increases; the
trend is similar to the result obtained by the linear method.
However, the structural lateral deformation and follow effect of aerodynamics are considered in the nonlinear methodology, therefore, the results obtained by the nonlinear
method are greater than the linear ones.
Accompanying with the increase of the speed, the angle
of attack keeps decreasing until it reaches the bottom, and

Figure 12 The initial configuration and deformed configuration of the

aircraft (V=30 m/s, M=400 g).

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Load along the wing span (V=30 m/s, M=400 g).

then it turns to increase with the flight speed, so does the

elevator deflection. This change is caused by two different
reasons. One reason is that the aerodynamics produces a
positive torsional deformation on the wing, which increases
the effective angle of attack of the wing profile. Therefore,
the angle of attack for longitudinal trim is decreased. The
other reason is that the lateral deformation of the wing becomes much more evident as the structural deformation
keeps increasing with the speed, and that leads to a decrease
of lift generating efficiency and an increase of the angle of
attack. In practice, the lateral deformation of the wing is not
obvious when the speed is low, and the first reason is the
leading role, therefore the angle of attack decreases as the
flight speed increases. As the flight speed keeps increasing,
the lateral deformation of the wing becomes much more
significant, the second reason also becomes more important
than the first one, therefore, the angle of attack turns to increase with the flight speed.
Moreover, the variation of the aerodynamic and total
bending moments at the wing root with flight speed are
shown in Figure 16. The result shows that significant difference appears between the results of the linear and non-

Figure 14

October (2012) Vol.55 No.10

linear analyses. All the analyses show that the linear method
fails to accurately describe the structural and aerodynamic
characteristics when the aircraft undergoes a large deformation, because the linear method adopts the assumption of
infinitesimal deformation and does not consider the nonplanar aerodynamic effects or the structural geometric nonlinearity. The linear method could not predict the right variation trends of the angle of attack and elevator deflection for
longitudinal trim, and the structural loads obtained by the
linear method are smaller than the real ones. Therefore, the
linear method is not applicable to the structural design of
very flexible aircraft.

4 Conclusions
A method for the static aeroelastic trim analysis and flight
loads computation of flexible aircraft with large deformations has been presented in this paper, which considers
the geometric nonlinearity of the structure and the nonplanar effects of aerodynamics. A nonplanar vortex lattice
method is used to compute the nonplanar aerodynamics.

Angle of attack and elevator deflection vs. flight speed (M=400 g).

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Yang C, et al.

Figure 15

Figure 16

Sci China Tech Sci

October (2012) Vol.55 No.10

Vertical displacement and torsion angle at the wing tip vs. flight speed (M=400 g).

Aerodynamic and total bending moment at the wing root vs. flight speed (M=400 g).

The nonlinear finite element method is introduced to consider the structural geometric nonlinearity. Moreover, the
surface spline method is used for structure/aerodynamics
coupling. Finally, by combining the equilibrium equations
of rigid motions of the deformed aircraft, the nonlinear trim
problem of flexible aircraft has been solved by iterative
solution method. For instance, the longitudinal trim analysis
of a flexible aircraft with large-aspect-ratio wings has been
carried out by both the nonlinear method presented and the
linear method of MSC Flightloads. Results obtained by these two methods are compared. Conclusions are summarized
below.
1) The analysis shows that the results obtained by both
the linear and nonlinear method will be in agreement with
each other when the deformation is small (it is approximately <15% of the semispan for the aircraft discussed in
this paper). However, because the linear method of static
aeroelastic analysis does not consider the nonplanar aerodynamic effects or structural geometric nonlinearity, it will
not be applicable as the deformation increases. The angle of
attack, elevator deflection, structural deformation and loads
distribution of the aircraft are all smaller than the nonlinear
results. Moreover, the difference between the results obtained by these two methods increases rapidly with the deformation.
2) When using the nonlinear method, the location of the
vortex lattices is updated according to the deformed configuration of the aircraft. The follower force effect is also con-

sidered in the structural nonlinear statics computation.

Therefore, the nonlinear method produces much more accurate trim results when the deformation is large. At the
same time, the nonplanar aerodynamics is herein computed
by the nonplanar vortex lattice method, which is efficient
and does not require additional parameter adjustments.
Moreover, the nonlinear finite element method could be
used to consider complex structures. Consequently, the nonlinear method presented is suitable for the rapid and efficient analysis requirements of engineering practice. This
method could be used in the preliminary design stage and
also in the detailed design stage of aircraft design.
3) According to the numerical example of the flexible
aircraft with large-aspect-ratio wings, the angle of attack,
elevator deflection, and displacements and torsion angle at
the wing tip all increase nonlinearly with the aircraft weight.
For the flexible aircraft with a fixed weight, the angle of
attack and the elevator deflection decrease as the speed increases until it reaches the bottom. As the speed further increases, they will turn to increase with the speed. On the
other side, the large deformation will decrease the lift generating efficiency of the aircraft, and make a rapid increase
of the structural loads. Therefore, the large deformation that
has a negative impact on the aerodynamic performance
should be avoided when pursuing a light weight aircraft
structure.
Furthermore, the nonlinear aeroelastic trim analysis
method could be used with the optimization method during

Yang C, et al.

Sci China Tech Sci

the aircraft design procedure in order to make a tradeoff

between the weight, deformation and aerodynamic performance of the aircraft. In addition, this paper just discussed
the flexible aircraft with straight slender mental wings;
when the swept wings and/or complex materials are used,
the variation trends of trim parameters may be different.
However, the nonlinear method presented in this paper is
still applicable.
This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of
China (Grant Nos. 11172025, 91116005) and the Research Fund for the
Doctoral Program of Higher Education of China (Grant No.
20091102110015).

October (2012) Vol.55 No.10

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