Data driven and model-based vertical sloshing reduced order models for aeroelastic analysis

A thorough understanding of the effects of sloshing on aircraft dynamic loads can be exploited for the future design of aircraft to be able to reduce their structural mass. Indeed, the high vertical accelerations caused by the vibrations of the structure can lead to the fragmentation of the fuel free surface. Fluid impacts on the tank roof are potentially a new source of damping for the structure that have hardly been considered before when computing the dynamic loads of the wings. This work aims at applying recently developed reduced-order models for vertical sloshing to a representative aeroelastic testbed, to investigate their effects on the wing’s response under pre-critical and post-critical conditions. The vertical sloshing dynamics is considered comparing three different reduced order models based, respectively, on neural networks, equivalent mechanical model, and surrogate model then integrated into the aeroelastic system.