A methodological exploration for efficient prediction of airfoil response to gusts in wind engineering

Abstract

This paper presents several approaches for efficient estimation of airfoil response to gust via computational fluid dynamics and reduced-order modeling. A computational fluid dynamics code enabling simulation of aerodynamics under an arbitrary-shaped discrete gust is adopted. Convolution models using baseline sharp-edge gust response either obtained by the closed-form Küssner functions or computational fluid dynamics methods are established. A parametric approximation function model for gust response is identified via the least square optimization of the computational fluid dynamics-obtained sharp-edge responses. Finally, an example taking advantage of the aerodynamic response by the above methods to simulate the aeroelastics of an airfoil performing a plunging-twisting coupled motion under various gusts is presented. The present practice indicates that the reduced-order modelings are not only more efficient compared to direct computational fluid dynamics simulations, but also have a satisfactory accuracy in gust response predictions.