Research on Static Loading Method for Flexible Airship

Abstract In this paper, the static loading method is presented for studying nonlinear aerodynamic effect of flexible airship. We calculated the coupled aerodynamic and deformation problem by numerical simulation, and established instrumentation system indoor based on the data of the large airship developed by our client. By converting aerodynamic load into the concentrated force, we conducted static load test on the airship model. Consequently, we obtained the simulated deformation contours at various angles of attack and typical wind speed both by aerodynamic load and concentrated forces. Moreover, we measured the deformations of five measured zones with the depth processing camera, and compared the measured and simulated deformations. The results show our static loading method can effectively reflect the deformation distribution caused by aerodynamic loads on flexible airship, and it is effective to study the deformation of flexible airship at actual flight condition by this method.