A whole aircraft aeroelastic model for evaluation of propulsion system idealizations

Existing aircraft modeling and analysis frameworks exploit computationally efficient, highly idealized structural models, supplemented with a wealth of empirical knowledge to inform decisions during early design stages. However, empirical knowledge may be inappropriate for future aircraft with novel, highly integrated airframes and propulsion systems, necessitating expanded structural modeling and analysis capability. Whereas physics-based generation of idealized airframe models for use in early design whole aircraft level aeroelastic analysis is well documented, a range of propulsion system structural modeling strategies have been employed for these same analyses, with limited consideration of their accuracy relative to higher fidelity modeling strategies. A verified whole aircraft aeroelastic model with a sufficiently detailed propulsion system structural model is required to generate data for key metrics which typically inform early design stages - the accuracy of idealized modeling strategies may be evaluated relative to such data. This paper details development of a verified aeroelastic model of a conventional Tube-And-Wing airframe with a higher fidelity, predominantly Two-Dimensional propulsion system representation and proposes a modeling strategy for integrating airframe and propulsion system structural models of dissimilar fidelity levels.