Integrated Flight Mechanics and Aeroelastic Aircraft Modeling using Object-Oriented Modeling Techniques

In this paper a software implementation is proposed of integrated flight mechanics / aeroelastic aircraft models, using object-oriented modeling techniques. Model development involves integrating a rigid aircraft simulation model with aeroelastic flutter analysis models. The main application is primary flight control law design, in which most of the criteria are of flight mechanical nature. For this reason, the rigid aircraft model is taken as the basis, while the fidelity of the aeroelastic part may depend on the accuracy required. Object-oriented modeling allows physical objects and phenomena to be implemented one-to-one into software objects, since interconnections can be defined freely (e.g. according to physical interactions like energy flow). This feature facilitates integration of model components from different engineering disciplines. A model compiler generates simulation code by symbolic manipulation of the model equations. The code can be exported to several (simulation) languages. This allows the same model to be used in different engineering environments. We illustrate this feature with a flutter analysis example.