Aero Elasticity and Aircraft Design

This course covers the comprehensive understanding of aeroelasticity and its impact on aircraft design. It begins with the fundamentals of static aeroelasticity, explaining the divergence of a 2D section, the torsional spring constant of an aerofoil, and the concept of the aerodynamic centre. It then delves into the concept of torsional deformation in wings, discussing the torsional deformation equation of a straight wing and the conditions under which the deformation becomes significant. The course further explores the aeroelastic effects on an aircraft during different flight conditions, emphasizing the importance of considering aeroelastic effects in the design phase of aircraft. It also covers the complex topic of bending and torsional deformations, focusing on the coupling of these deformations and the differences between chord-wise and stream-wise formulations. Lastly, the course provides a detailed explanation of the formulation for swept wings, focusing on chord-wise rigid models and the application of the Galerkin method for determining the divergence of a wing.

This course has been developed by Prof. C. Venkatesan from IIT Kanpur for NPTEL. It is now accessible through Ansys Innovation Space courtesy of the partnership between Ansys and NPTEL, under the CC BY-SA license. For more details, visit https://nptel.ac.in/courses/101104005.