This paper deals with modular coupling of CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics) and CSD (Computational Structure Dynamics) methods for aeroelastic rotor simulations, investigating two different coupling approaches. The first one is the weak (or loose) coupling, where boundary conditions (aerodynamic loads and elastic deformations) are exchanged after convergence of each individual method. This method yields naturally a trimmed solution. The second method is the so-called strong (or tight) coupling, which consists in an exchange of aerodynamic loads and structural deformations at each time step. For a comparison of both coupling approaches a trimmed solution for the strong coupling is a necessary prerequisite, and two methods to achieve this are proposed. Furthermore, aspects of convergence speed and computational costs as well as principal differences of both coupling methods are addressed. Finally, the results are compared to experimental data.
展开▼
