Towards CFD-Based Aeroelastic Analysis of NLF Wings

The effect of Natural Laminar Flow (NLF) on the aeroelastic behavior of transport aircraft wings is widely unknown. This numerical study investigates the influence of boundary layer transition on the unsteady aerodynamic response of an NLF test case, the DLR-F5 wing. State-of-the-art RANS methods for transition prediction are compared at wind tunnel and free-flight conditions. A more critical flutter behavior is indicated in the case of transitional flow.