S. Srividhya, B.E, et. al.

International Journal of Engineering Research and Applications

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ISSN: 2248-9622, Vol. 10, Issue 9, (Series-III) September 2020, pp. 21-32

RESEARCH ARTICLE OPEN ACCESS

Fluid-Structure Interaction Studyon an Aircraft wingmodel using

ANSYS Coupling system
S. Srividhya, B.E1, K.Nehru, M.Tech, Ph.D2, M.Subramanian, M.Tech, Ph.D3
1
Department of Aeronautical Engineering, SNS College of Technology,Sathy Main Road, Coimbatore, India – 641035
2
Assistant Professor, Department of Aeronautical Engineering, SNS College of Technology, Coimbatore, India
3
Prof & Head of the Department Department of Aeronautical Engineering, SNS College of Technology, Coimbatore, India

ABSTRACT
The wing of an aircraft is the most critical part of an aircraft structure as it greatly influences the aerodynamic
performance of the aircraft. Maintaining aircraft stability involves a lot of factors including the aeroelastic
factors in an aircraft wing. It is paramount that the structural integrity of the aircraft body and the wing is
maintained to avoid structural failure. The interaction of aerodynamic forces and elastic forces in a structure
leads to aeroelasticity problems. Hence, these problems can be addressed by solving the fluid-structure
interaction on an aircraft wing. This paper deals with solving the Fluid-Structure interaction on an aircraft wing
using ANSYS Workbench components. In this project, an aircraft wing is designed and modeled using CATIA
whose material is defined as Aluminium Alloy. The 2-way FSI analysis is carried out using Coupling method
analysis in ANSYS Workbench which combines the data from ANSYS Structural and ANSYS Fluent to
determine the structural deformation as well as aerodynamic effects on the aircraft wing which aids in studying
the static aeroelastic effects in the given aircraft wing.
Keywords –Aircraft wing, ANSYS, CATIA, CFD, Coupling, Deformation, FEA, Fluid flow.
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Date of Submission: 29-08-2020 Date of Acceptance: 14-09-2020
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I. INTRODUCTION A. Computational FSI

Fluid-structure Interaction is an The study of FSI is done by various
interdisciplinary multifaceted physic methods and one of the most common methods in
phenomenonoccurring in a system where fluid flow Engineering practices s Computational mechanics.
impacts the deformation of a solid structure, which The use of numerical simulations can minimize the
also leads to the changes in the boundary condition amount of time spent and manpower required for
of the fluid flow. An elastic solid body coming in experimental methods to evaluate a large number
contact with a flowing fluid is also subjected to of design alternatives based on the problem. A
pressure due to the flow which in turn causes better understanding and realization of the problem
deformation in the structure. Now, because of the and concept can be obtained through
deformed structure, the initial flow is also affected. Computational methods because of the large range
Ultimately, the subsequently altered fluid flow of information gathered during the process.
exerts another type of pressure on the structure, and Especially in cases of FSI which involves both
the process keeps repeating. This kind of Fluid Mechanics and Structural mechanics,
interaction is termed as Fluid-Structure Interaction Computational methods involving both
(FSI).During such interactions, the forces on the Computational Fluid- Dynamics and
solid objectcan lead to different deformations. Computational Structural Dynamics have many
These deformations can be quite large or very small advantages with the study by Numerical
and it depends on the pressure and velocity of the Simulations.
flow as well as the material properties of the CFD and CSD are the two most prominent
subject structure.FSIis of fundamental importance research areas in aerospace applications and now
and a prominent research area in many with the technological advancement in the past
aerospace‐ engineering applications on account of decade, it has reached a maturity level in aiding
its manifestation in aeroelasticity, solving large industrial and academic problems that
aerothermoelasticity, and heat transfer. were not plausible in the past. With the
technological growth in past decades, it is visible
that high-performance computers and various

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ISSN: 2248-9622, Vol. 10, Issue 9, (Series-III) September 2020, pp. 21-32

coupling algorithms, the study of FSI by numerical and Static structural accounting for nonlinear
simulations have been made accessible and reliable geometric effects, say large strain & large
and there are numerous ways to solve FSI cases deformation, nonlinear material behaviors, and
with various flexible structures and adaptive flow nonlinear contacts that require an accurate
conditions. simulation to read their behavior.
There are numerous solvers for carrying The ANSYS Workbench system coupling
out such Coupling methods and one such solver is solver which is a conjunction of both ANSYS
ANSYS Workbench and this project is based on Fluent and ANSYS Mechanical provides a platform
performing a coupling method in the said solver. of advanced software tools that aids us to robustly
The solution of such dependently coupled FSI solve the industry’s most complex fluid-structure
problems is carried out by system coupling which interaction challenges. The ability to carry out such
applies implicit sequential coupling by employing advanced FSI applications with an efficient and
an iterative solution between CFD and FEA intuitive workflow allows the engineers to
solvers. During each time step of the FSI solution, proficiently perform fluid-structure interaction
there are many mesh updates and data transfers simulations. Such practices enable the engineers to
within the participant solvers along with the account for the multiphysics problems during
multiple iterations between them. Convergence for product development.
the time step is achieved only when participating
solvers are converged individually. D. Applications of FSI
Fluid-structure interaction exists in its
B. Coupling Method many forms in bothnatural systems as well as man-
A system coupling component system in made objects. It is also primal torealize the degree
any solver connects a structural and fluid flow of severity in such interaction between the solidand
system for solving FSI. In ANSYS Workbench, the fluid characteristics as it varies between different
system coupling enables us to couple a transient or problems. The most common FSI problems in
static structural and fluid flow in Fluent or CFX to Aerospace applications are aero-elasticity,
form transient or steady-state FSI. Results can be hydroelasticity, flow-induced vibration, thermal
viewed in individual components or an integrated deformation, etc.
post-processing result system is also available for
CFD and structural results. E. Aeroelasticity
The fluid properties and Structural One ofthe main applications of aerospace
conditions on the wing are mutually exclusive and FSI is the flow of air around an airplanewing
a coupling system is required to determine the structure causing the wing to deform. When the
effects of one over the other. The new boundary for wing deforms, the structural deformation causes the
coupling is obtained by calculating generalized change in air patterns around it.The most important
force values and the deflection of the wing in static FSI phenomenon on an airplane structure is
equilibrium. Fluid computations are based on the Aeroelasticity. Aeroelasticity is a subject that
Navier-Stokes equation. The structural mesh and studies, analyses, and harnesses the interactions
flow field mesh deformation iscarried out by the among aerodynamic forces, elastic forces
Trans-Finite Interpolation method (TFI), and the (structural deformation), and inertial forces
data exchange of structural and fluid on the System (motion/ dynamics of aerodynamiclifting surfaces).
coupling interface was realized by the Constant Aeroelastic interactions determine the airplane
Volume Transform method (CVT). loads and influence the performance of flight in
four primary areas:
C. FSI in ANSYS  wing and tail surface lift redistribution
The main objective of this project is to  lift effectiveness
conduct the FSI numerical simulation on ANSYS  control effectiveness
Workbench and study how the solver is efficient.  aileron reversal
The primary reason for using this solver system is Also, Aircraft structural dynamic response
because the ANSYS Fluent provides many causing structural instability due to buffeting and
different mesh deformation schemes, which include fluter. Aeroelastic phenomena may be divided
layering, smoothing, and remeshing, that account according to the Collars triangle as shown in Fig. 1.
for significant updates to the fluid domain during The sides of the triangle illustrate the relationships
the FSI solution or coupling method. These among the particular pairs of forces representing
FSIparameters also require the advanced structural the said areas of mechanics. On the other hand, the
capabilities that are available in ANSYS triangle’s interior represents the interference of all
Mechanical components like Transient structural three groups of forces leading to dynamic

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aeroelastic phenomena. When inertial forces are AGARD wing 445.6 with free-stream Mach
excluded, the interaction is characterized by numbers ranging from 0.499 to 1.141 and their
unidirectional structural deformation, which as a results are proved to be compared well with the
result causes Static aeroelasticity. Meanwhile, experimental data.
dynamic aeroelastic phenomena do include inertial Bocheng Zhang, Weilong Ding,
forces in their oscillatory characteristics of Shengcheng Ji &Jiazhen Zhang(2016) In this
structural deformation. paper, the authors have proposed a method based
on Euler equations for predicting transonic flutter
boundary in this paper. Euler equations are
considered for the fluid field and boundary layer
equations are considered inside the boundary
layers, taking viscosity into account. The prediction
of the transonic flutter boundary is performed
based on the traditional method in the frequency
domain using generalized aerodynamic coefficients
matrices. Also, the simulation results are compared
with the experimental results in this paper. The
comparisons between the simulation and
experimental results of the AGARD 445.6 wing
show that the simulation results are following the
experiment results for Mach numbers less than 1.
Fig. 1 Collar's triangle
They have encountered a transonic dip of the flutter
boundary of the AGARD 445.6 wing which is
The purpose of this project is to illustrate
located at a Mach number of around 0.954, which
the effect of aerodynamic load and structural
is also the Mach number when the shock wave
deflection interactions on the aircraft wing model
appears on the wing surface. Also, they have
by studying the interactions between the structural
proved that this frequency-domain is efficient than
internal forces and the external aerodynamic forces
the time-domain method.
on the wing. The typical section model
J S Chaitanya, Arun Prasad, B
development is followed by the development of a
multi-degree of freedom model to illustrate the Pradeep, P L N Sri Harsha, S Shali, and S
RNagaraja(2017) The main objective of this paper
mathematical criteria for the static stability of an
is to use the application of CFD in determining the
aeroelastic system.
vibrational characteristics of an aircraft wing. The
In ANSYS Workbench, the coupling
analysis has been performed in ANSYS
component is used to achieve the CFD/FEA
Workbench to obtain the vibrational characteristics
coupling system to study the Fluid-Structure
of the AGARD 445.6 wing. The wing was studied
Interaction on the chosen aircraft wing.
under transonic flow conditions. CFD analysis is
performed on the wing to have a basic
II. LITERATURE REVIEW understanding of the pressure variations on the
Xiangying Chen,Ge-Cheng Zha, Ming- surface of the wing. The transient analysis gives the
Ta Yang (2007) The authors have developed a
time domain solution for the wing which is utilized
numerical methodology with fully coupled fluid-
to extract the structural frequency. The plot of
structural interaction for determining the flutter
Mach number and its corresponding flutter index is
characteristics in a 3-D transonic wing. It involves
used to observe the behavior of the wing when it is
coupling Navier–Stokes equations and structural
in the transition zone between subsonic and
modal equations. They have employed the dual-
supersonic speeds. From the flutter index diagram,
time step implicit unfactored Gauss-Seidel iteration
the dip is observed in the transonic regime and at a
with the Roe scheme in the flow solver. A modal
certain Mach number, the wing is most unstable.
approach structure solver is used to simulate the
NatarajKuntoji, Dr. Vinay,and V.
wing’s response. The flow and structure solvers are
Kuppast (2017) The design of the aircraft wing
fully coupled via successive iterations within each
using NACA standards has been discussed in this
physical time step. They have used ANSYS
work. The wing analysis is carried out by using
Workbench for this method of approach and have
computer numerical analysis tools including
verified the accuracy of the solver. They obtained
CAD/CAE and CFD. The necessary inputs for
the first 5 modes of the chosen wing to study the
carrying out the structural analysis with emphasis
modal response with the coupled system. They
on the vibration are obtained by CFD analysis. The
have done the study on the flutter boundary of
deformation of the wing structures is investigated

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concerning the standard airflow velocity. The behind fluid-structure interaction. That includes
Computer-Aided Design Tools and NACA various methods to solve FSI Problem, types of
standards have been accomplished to design the Coupling, different ways to approach FSI&
wing structure. The vibration characteristics of the detailed application areas of it. The paper talks
wing structures are studied by modal analysis to about the importance of FSI when designing any
find the natural frequency of the wing structures. aerodynamics parts or other engineering
The CFD results revealed that the pressure on the components. The paper focuses on the interface
upper surface of the wing for all the wing section condition that is required to consider for safe
planes is less, about -4.97e3N/mm2, as compared design. Also, the paper deals with using ANSYS
to the pressure on the lower surface, about 1.08e4 Fluent, and Structure simulation for FSI is solved
N/mm2, which satisfy the theory of lift generation. analytically by importing loads from fluent to
The pre-stressed modal analysis shows the structure. Their results suggest that either object
correlation of the stress, deformation, and the will go into the plastic limit or elastic deformation.
corresponding mode of vibration. Jong-Hwan Kim, Jae-Sung Bae, and
Han Jinglong, Cui Peng(2011) This Jai-Hyuk Hwang (2016) In this paper, they have
paper involves the study of aeroelastic behavior of developed a static/dynamic aeroelastic analysis
the subject wing model using numerical simulation through CFD-CSD coupled method on a UAV
and comparing the results with experimental structure. A Computational Fluid Dynamic is used
results. The wing used was the MAVRIC wing. to compute the aerodynamics and the Finite
They have adapted a high-fidelity method of Element Method is used for structural analysis. The
approach to solve the structural and aerodynamic CFD-CSD coupled analysis for static and dynamic
factors of the wing. They have used the CFD analysis were performed for the high AR wing of
approach derived from Euler equations to solve the the solar-powered UAV. FEM model and CFD
aerodynamic properties and CSD for structure. model of the present high AR wing are established
Since the aeroelastic behavior requires both the and they are verified. Static and dynamic
factors, they have developed a coupling solver to aeroelastic analyses of the wing using the CFD-
solve the aeroelastic phenomenon. Flutter and LCO CSD coupled method are performed. Their results
behavior of the basic transport wing was predicted show that the present wing is aeroelastically stable
first, and the results were compared with the for both static and dynamic cases.
existing experiment. It was found that large- KakumaniSureka and R Satya Meher
amplitude shock-wave motion provided the proper (2015) this paper deals with finding suitable
physical mechanism for the LCO. Then, flutter material for a given wing ode which is the A300
analyses of winglet transport wing and C-wing wing since it is one of the most widely used aircraft
were conducted. wings. The main purpose of this project is to find
Jingyuan Yang, Yilang Liu, and Weiwei out which material either AL alloy or Al alloy 7068
Zhang (2018) A fast static aeroelastic analysis is best suited for making the wing of flight. The
method, coupling with the modal method and CAD model of the A300 wing with spares and ribs
Kriging surrogate model, is proposed in this paper. using is modeled using the software CATIA V5
The deflection of the wing is described by the R20 and the structural analysis is carried out using
modal method, and the Kriging surrogate model is ANSYS WORKBENCH. From the obtained results
utilized to model the generalized forces under they have concluded that the difference between
different deformations, angles of attack, and Mach the values of deformation, equivalent stress, max
numbers to replace the CFD solver. They have principle stress, stress intensity, and shear stress
analyzed the static aeroelasticity of the with Al alloy and Aluminum alloy7068 is minimal,
HIRENASD wing in the transonic flow field by and the results obtained are validated and verified.
coupling with the generalized force model by the Since the difference in values was minimal, they
static equilibrium equation. The results were have proposed that Aluminum Alloy 7068 should
compared with those of the experimental data. The be used in the place of Aluminium alloy for the
developed model is aimed at replacing the CFD better structural integrity of the wing structure.
solver and is more time saving than the CFD/CSD Ramindla Praveen,
method when it comes to a large quantity of the ElumagandlaSurendar, and K
static aeroelastic analyses. It has a good perspective ShyamKumar(2018) The main objective of this
for engineering applications for the aircraft design paper is to achieve a reduction in the weight of an
period. aircraft by using different materials including some
JainishTopiwala, Gaurav Mistry, composite materials, in which Aluminium as base
Sandip Patel, and Pratik Umrigar (2016) The material and mixed with some other materials at
paper is a study that lightened up the basic theories different proportions. A suitable wing profile

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NACA 4412 is selected and modeled in CATIAV5 B. Computational Fluid Dynamics

R20. The generated wing profile is imported to Meshing/
Fluid Domain
ANSYS WORKBENCH. To examine the structural Fluid model
setup
Elements
effectiveness of the designed wing, 3-D finite Discretization
element analysis was performed using ANSYS
software to compute the critical stresses,
displacements, strains and to test the wings against Fluid -
Aerodynamic
Von- Misses failure criterion. The conditions are Solver Surface
Boundary
Criteria Contact
given based on the inputs obtained from Conditions
assignment
experimental examinations on the selected wing.
The materials were assigned differently and the
results were compared. The first 6 order natural
frequency and the vibration modes are obtained. Coupled
Results
system
The results are used to study the structural
performance of the wing with different materials. Flow chart 3 Fluid Dynamic analysis
III. METHODOLOGY C. Fluid-Structure Interaction
A. Method of Approach Overview
Coupled System

Interface and data setup

Calculation

Results

Post processing

Flow chart 4 Coupling method for FSI

IV. MODELING OF WING

The performance and operation of any
Flow chart 1 Method of approach aircraft are fundamentally dependent upon the type
of wing, its parameters, and characteristics. Hence,
A. Finite Element Analysis the wing of an aircraft is the most important part of
Structural
Static Meshing/ an aircraft structure. The aircraft wing is modeled
structural Elements using CATIA V5 wherein the airfoil coordinates
CAD
setup Discretization
are imported through Microsoft Office Excel
Macros. The wing model used in this paper is a
tapered wing and the angle of attack maintained
Fluid - with the wing model is 10 degrees. The
Inertial
Solver Surface
Criteria Interface
Boundary specifications of the wing model used are as
Conditions follows.
assignment

A. Airfoil
An airfoil is the 2D representation of the
Coupled aircraft wing or in other words, t is the cross-
Results
system sectional view of the wing. It is a fluid determined
Flow chart 2 Structural Analysis body and is moved by aerodynamic forces. The
front of the airfoil is named the leading edge and
the rear of the trailing edge.
Airfoil used: NACA a65112
Maximum thickness ratio is 12% at 40% of the
chord Maximum camber is at 1.1% at 50% of the

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chord aerospace field due to its lightweight structural

property and high strength. Aluminum Alloy
constitutes mixtures of materials including Copper,
Iron, Manganese, Silicon, Magnesium, Zinc, and
Lithium. The Mechanical Properties of the chosen
Fig. 2 Airfoil Plot Aluminium allow exhibits lower weigh or density
than any other high strength materials. The
B. Wing Dimensions Aluminium is much reliable for aerospace
The wing used for this project is inspired applications, especially for the high strength low
bythe AGARD wing. However, the dimensions are weight property. The properties of the Aluminum
changed for research purposes. The dimensions of material used in this paper are represented in Table
the wing used in this paper are as follows. 1.
Root Length = 559 mm TABLE 1
Tip Length = 356 mm MATERIAL PROPERTIES
Wing Span = 1542 mm Density (g/cm3) 2.6898
Modulus of Elasticity (GPa) 68.3
C. CAD Model Poisson’s Ratio 0.34
The airfoil data imported into the CATIA
Software is displayed in the below figure. The Also, In ANSYS Fluent air is used for
points seen in the figure are the coordinates of the inlet surface condition at a speed of 115 m/sec. The
above-mentioned airfoil and they are connected to properties of air are maintained at the atmospheric
form the curve of an airfoil. conditions with a density of 1.225 kg/m3, the
default in ANSYS Fluent.

V. FINITE ELEMENT ANALYSIS

Finite Element Analysis is a numerical
Fig. 3 Airfoil Plot imported in CATIA
simulation method in which a mathematical
representation of a physical system is produced. A
The above figure displays the airfoil curve
structural model is created by applying material
for the Root of the wing structure used in this
properties, and applicable boundary conditions
project. Similarly, the airfoil coordinates for the tip
which collectively are referred to as PRE-
are also generated by altering the data and
PROCESSING of the analysis. It is followed by the
dimensions of the coordinates and are generated
solution of that mathematical representation, which
using MS Excel macros. Once both the airfoil
is referred to as SOLVING. Finally, the study of
curves of Root and Tip are generated, the curves
the results of that solution and plotting virtual
are joined usingthe Multi-Section method to
representations of the results are collectively
generate the Wing Surface. The isometric view of
referred to as POST- PROCESSING. On the other
the wing used is displayed in the following figure.
hand, Computational Static structural is one of the
classical core disciplines in FEA that deals with the
problems involving elastic properties of the
materials and the corresponding deformations
based on the given problem. ANSYS is an analysis
systems software that is capable of performing
structural, thermal, vibrational and fluid analysis.
ANSYS Workbench Static Structural solver is used
for the FEA analysis part of the FSI Study.

A. Ansys Static Structural

Ansys Static Structural is one of the FEA
Fig. 4 CAD Model of the wing tools available in ANSYS Workbench. Ansys
structural analysis software is used to solve
D. Materials Used complex structural engineering problems involving
The material properties of a structure or in design and development of a structure. With the
fluid have a great influence on the results of both FEA tools available in this component, the
structural and fluid simulations. The material of the solutions can be customized and automated based
wing structure is defined with Aluminum Alloy. on the requirement and severity of the structural
Aluminum is the most common material used in the mechanics’ problems and parameterize them to

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analyze and visualize different and multiple design problem exhibits the cantilever beam condition.
scenarios. We have chosen ANSYS Solver systems Standard Earth gravity is assigned in the y-
for this project and the structural portion of the direction according to the coordinate orientation if
analysis, Static Structural component in the model that resembles the actual position of a
Workbench is used. wing in cruise having gravity act downwards in the
wing. An external load pressure of 500 Pa is
B. Meshing distributed on the top surface of the wing as the C
The structural model of this project label indicates in the figure.
constitutes the 3D model of the wing structure. The
primary part of the model setup in any numerical
simulation sis meshing and the structural model is
meshed using the Setup component in ANSYS
Workbench. Meshing is an important part of the
simulation as the elements discretized contribute
integrally to the final results. A fine mesh is
required for good results, the default mesh provided
by ANSYS may not be uniform and proper in many
cases. Especially for a structure with airfoil and
wing parameters, the meshing is complicated.
A structured mesh is necessary for better
Fig. 6 Boundary conditions
results in such numerical simulations. ANSYS
Workbench provides a default unstructured mesh
The upper surface, lower surface, and the
for any geometry that is defined in the solver. So, a
Tip surface are assigned as Fluid-Structure
meshing method is introduced to form a structured
Interface. The Large deformations option in the
mesh for this analysis. The meshing method used in
analysis settings is turned on to obtain the results
our problem is the automatic method with the 2nd
with more accuracy. In this particular type of
order quadratic elements. The whole body is
solving, the minor deformations, or the changes in
uniformly defined with a 10mm element size and
the result is also accounted for the result. The
the mesh is solved.
model is solved under Pre-Stress Environment in
ANSYS. Hence the large deformation is selected.
Also, the required results components are inserted
into the solution for post-processing.

VI. COMPUTATIONAL FLUID

DYNAMICS
Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) is
the numerical solution method involving applied
mathematics, physics, and computational software
to solve the flow of a gas or a liquid and the effect
Fig. 5 Mesh of the model of said fluid around the object through which they
pass. Computational Fluid Dynamics is based on
The growth rate and smoothing of the the Navier-Stokes equations. These equations
above model are defined as high to attain a smooth control the CFD solver and describe how the
mesh of the model. The statistics of this particular velocity, pressure, temperature, and density of a
mesh are as follows, moving fluid are connected in a system. For
Number of Nodes : 141894 solving the fluid characteristics in this study,
Number of Elements : 30030 ANSYS Fluent solver, the Computational Fluid
Dynamics solver system available in ANSYS is
C. Boundary Conditions used. A fluid-domain is created for the wing model
In this project, the wing model is setup at and the boundary conditions are applied based on
Cantilever Beam's condition. The condition is the aerodynamic loads the structure is subjected to.
based on the objective that the Root of the wing Also, Dynamic Meshing is applied to the surfaces
structure is attached to the body of the fuselage in for the FSI purpose.
an aircraft and hence it is fixed. The Root chord or
the root surface of the wing is applied with fixed
support. So, the structural model used in this

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A. ANSYS Fluent
ANSYS provides us a comprehensive
suite of a computational fluid dynamics solver
system for modelingfluid flow and other equivalent
and related physical phenomena. ANSYS solver
system offers anunparalleled fluid flow analysis
capabilities by providing all the tools that are
necessary to design and optimize any kind of fluids
equipment. It also helps in studying various
scenarios by troubleshooting existing solving
systems. The primary ANSYS solvers available in
ANSYS in the area of the fluidand CFD are
ANSYS Fluent and ANSYS CFX. Fig. 7 Fluid- Domain Model
Both components provide a wide range of
Fluid problem scenarios that enable many types of The Fig. 7 clearly illustrates the box that
Engineering practices. With these solver surrounds the wing model is the fluid domain of the
systems,we can simulate various kinds of given wing model. A required domain is designed
phenomena including aerodynamics, and extruded to form a box, Also, a Boolean
hydrodynamics, combustion,mixtures of operation is performed to subtract the wing area
liquids/solids/gas, reacting flows, particle from the fluid region such that the air or any other
dispersions, heat transfer,etc,. Both Steady-state fluid flowing through the domain will not interfere
and transient flow phenomena can be solved in with the interior portion of the wing. The air flows
ANSYS System. The graphic results of an ANSYS around the wing.
FLUENT CFD software simulation will illustrate
the flow of a fluid, movement of the particle flow, C. Meshing
heat transfer simulations, chemical reactions in a The CFD model in this project comprises
system, etc. a fluid domain region surrounding the structure of
ANSYS Fluent has been used for this the wing. Hence the meshing is a bit complicated
project for solving the aerodynamic forces of the than the structural model. We have to make sure
wing. Fluent is much reliable than CFX in cases of that the entire fluid domain is distributed with
system coupling method. The governing equations uniform meshes while maintaining a smooth mesh
of any CFD Solver are as follows and the ANSYS around the contact region of the wing i.e., the FSI
Fluent also follows the same set of governing surfaces inside the boundary box. The 5 flat
equations to solve any problem given. surfaces of this fluid domain are defined with
second-order Triangular elements.The meshing
B. Fluid Domain Model method used for the wall face of the domain is the
A separate fluid domain around the model automatic method with the 2nd order quadratic
is required to define the role of the structural model elementsas shown in the figures below, Fig. 8 and
inside the fluid atmosphere. In such cases, a Fig. 9.
separate fluid domain Boundary box is modeled.
This can be done using CAD Modelling software or
the design modeler in ANSYS also allows for such
operations. This operation requires to draw a box
around the fluid domain as required and subtracting
the wing model structure inside the box so that the
shape follows as that the region around the wing.

Fig. 8&9 Mesh of the Fluid Model

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The growth rate and smoothing of the solvers with the transferred data and provides the
above model are defined too high to attain a results. The System Coupling in ANSYS manages
smooth mesh of the model. The statistics of this the exchanged datatransferred between the solvers
particular mesh are as follows, as defined to model the application and coordinate
Number of Nodes :123926 both the solvers. This form of execution between
Number of Elements :677511 them ensures smooth convergence of any
Multiphysics simulation especially, high-fidelity
D. Boundary Conditions Multiphysics simulations like FSI.
Boundary conditions consist of flow inlets
and exit boundaries, wall, repeating, and pole
boundaries, and internal face boundaries in the
solution domain and it determines the flow
characteristics. The applied boundary conditions in
this set of the fluid model are tabulated.

TABLE 2
FLUENT BOUNDARY CONDITIONS Fig. 9 ANSYS components Interaction
Surface Type of boundary
Inlet surface Inlet Velocity - Air In ANSYS Static Structural, the upper
surface and the lower surface of the aircraft wing is
Outlet surface Pressure outlet
defined as Fluid-Structure Interface. This enables
Bottom face Symmetry the setup in the Coupling system to read the data
Top face Symmetry for Fluid-Structure Interaction.In ANSYS Fluent,
Face behind Symmetry the wing surfaces or the contact region as
Front Wall / Wing mentioned earlier is set to the Coupling method as
Wall the operation on these surfaces is entirely
attached face
Wing surfaces Wall dependent on the coupling system and coupled
The region inside the Interior boundary condition.
domain The data transfers allow the regions to be
setup in the coupling system. The user must define
The inlet surface of the fluid domain is the region with Structural – Fluid coupling and
defined with air inlet velocity with a velocity Fluid – Structural coupling. The properties are
magnitude of 115 m/s. The initial gauge pressure is assigned by defining the source and target for the
set to 0 at the inlet. The outlet surface in this model Fluid-surface interaction regions that were
is defined as a Pressure outlet with default gauge previously conditioned. The source and target are
pressure settings. As mentioned in the table, the defined based on the FSI surface assigned in Static
front wall is assumed to be the region in which the structural and Coupling contact defined in Dynamic
root of the wing is attached to the fuselage body Meshing in ANSYS Fluent. Dynamic Meshing was
and hence assigned as a wall with No-Slip applied to all the surfaces in ANSYS Fluent based
condition. The contact region is also defined as a on the operation of each surface.
wall since it is a structure and the fluid is flowing
around the structure. The remaining 3 surfaces are VIII. SOLUTION
applied as symmetry. The interior section is the The data in the Static Structural
region covered inside the volume of the fluid component and Fluent is transferred to the System
domain boundary box and so the region is applied coupling and the 2-way coupling method
as the interior. interchanges the data to both the solver
components. The time step size and the number of
VII. COUPLING SYSTEM time steps are calculated based on the problem and
The FSI study requires a coupling system the solution model is setup. The numerical
to transfer the data in Static structural (FEA data) simulation is solved through the coupling solver.
and Fluent (CFD data) to solve the Fluid-Structure The results are observed separately from the Static
Interaction occurring in this set of problems. Ansys Structural component and Fluent component
offers a System Coupling method through which respectively for better visualization.
we can manage to the exchange of data and
coordinate independent solver executions to solve A. Structural results
the complex interactions between physical models. The ANSYS Workbench solves the given
In ANSYS software it is simulated in separate problem with the applied boundary conditions,

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S. Srividhya, B.E, et. al. International Journal of Engineering Research and Applications
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ISSN: 2248-9622, Vol. 10, Issue 9, (Series-III) September 2020, pp. 21-32

solution definitions, and yield the results as Shear stress is the force that is occurring
required. The coupling method accounts for the tangentially over the surface area of the plane.
aerodynamic load on the Surfaces of the aircraft Shear strain is the displacement of the plane over
wing. In this project, the structural results the distance of that surface from the opposite plane.
determined are Deformation along the y-axis in the The shear stress along the surface of the wing can
wing, Equivalent Stress, Equivalent Strain, and be obtained by solving the shear stress on the XZ
shear stress along the surface of the wing. The Plane in this particular model. Fig. 13 illustrates the
Total deformation in this wing is illustrated in the Shear stress along the upper surface of the
figure below. The maximum is found to be at the Wing.The shear stress is maximum along the
tip of the wing where the wing is deformed up to leading edge of the wing surface near the Root of
0.4 mm while the root of the wing doesn’t deform the wing.
and the value goes to very less in the range of 0 to
0.04 mm. This deformation is influenced by the
structural load as well as the aerodynamic loads
applied from ANSYS Fluent.

Fig. 13 Shear stress along the upper surface

Fig. 10 Total Deformation

As we can see in the previous figure, the

applied pressure causes the wing to deflect in the
direction normal to the wing structure and this is
accounted as the wing divergence under these
circumstances and boundary conditions. The
Fig. 14 Shear stress across the chord
equivalent stress and strain are illustrated in the
following figures.
The shear stress is intense near the root of
the wing and it alleviates. Also, the shear stress
solution along the YZ Plane gives the shear stress
along the airfoil or cross-sectional area of the wing.
The shear stress along the Root of the chord is
represented in Fig. 14. Here, the shear stress is
appeared to be maximum at the chord line and the
camber line section for the given boundary
conditions.

Fig. 11 Equivalent Elastic Strain B. Fluent results

CFD Post is used for the Post-processing
of the Fluent solver. Once the simulation is done,
The CFD Post can be used to view the fluid flow,
pressure distribution, and velocity vectors or other
parameters required for any given problems. For
this problem, we are studying the pressure
distribution and velocity behaviors of the give fluid
domain. Fig.15 below illustrates the pressure
distribution over the developed wing.

Fig. 12 Equivalent Stress

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Fig. 15 Pressure distribution over the surface of the Fig. 17 Velocity contours around the airfoil
wing

The above image shows the pressure

distribution along the surface of the wing. Here the
upper surface is displayed. The pressure is
maximum at the leading edge of the wing and it is
uniform over the surface and again increases along
the trailing edge. Fig.16 shows the pressure
distribution contoursconcerning the wall that is
attached to the wing.

Fig. 18 Velocity contours around the domain

IX. RESULTS
The above solutions produced are the
results of the model that is coupled under the
System coupling method where the structural loads
are transferred to ANSYS Fluent and the
aerodynamic loads given in Fluent are transferred
to Static Structural. But, the main objective of this
paper is to study the deflection of the wing
Fig. 16 Pressure distribution around the airfoil structure under these structural loads and
aerodynamic loads combined. This is obtained by
Similar to that of pressure distribution Total Mesh Displacement in CFD- Post.
observation, the velocity of the air inside the fluid Total Mesh displacement along the y-axis
domain is also observed in the post-processing of is determined and is represented in Fig. 19.The
the Fluent. The air is set to flow from the inlet value of the deflection of the wing is 0.4 mm. The
surface and it flows around the wing surface as it deformation is along the tip of the aircraft wing
comes in contact with the wing area. The velocity under the given loads. The contours in the image
vectors of this particular operation are illustrated in illustrate the deflection of the wing.
Fig. 17 and Fig.18.

Fig. 19 Total Mesh displacement (Tip of the wing)

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X. CONCLUSION A Review, C. G. Patel Institute of

The main objective of this paper is to Technology, UTU, India (2016).
conduct the 2- way FSI Analysis using ANSYS [8]. Jong-Hwan Kim, Jae-Sung Bae, and Jai-
components. The aircraft wing is modeled using Hyuk Hwang, Static and Dynamic
CATIA V5 CAD software and is imported into Aeroelastic Analysis of a High Aspect Ratio
ANSYS Workbench. The structural model and Wing through CFD-CSD Coupled
Fluid domain model are developed respectively Method,Korea Aerospace University
based on the requirements. The boundary Goyang, Republic of Korea (2016).
conditions for both the FEA Model and CFD model [9]. KakumaniSureka and R Satya Meher,
are defined in Static structural and ANSYS Fluent Modeling and structural analysis on A300
separately along with the assignment of contact flight wing by using ANSYS, QIS College of
surface conditions for coupling. The system Engg& Technology, Ongole, India (2015).
coupling in ANSYS Workbench is used to perform [10]. Ramindla Praveen, Elumagandla Surendar
the 2-way FSI Interaction for the components. The and K Shyam Kumar, Mulyono, Design,
data is transferred as Fluid-Structure and Structure- Static Structural and Modal Analysis of
Fluid and solved. The results are observed in post- Aircraft Wingb (NACA 4412) Using Anasys
processing. Workbench 14.5, Warangal Institute of
Technology & Science,Warangal, India
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