Atmospheric disturbances such as gusts or turbulence result in unsteady load fluctuations on the aircraft. They determine the structural sizing of large parts of the wing and directly affect passenger comfort. This work focuses on the numerical, CFD-based simulation of aircraft interaction with atmospheric disturbances and the alleviation of discrete gust loads under consideration of wing elasticity. First, the capability of the Disturbance Velocity Approach (DVA) to accurately represent the interaction of airfoils, wings or aircraft with gusts and broadband atmospheric turbulence in time-resolved CFD simulations is investigated. It offers a significant reduction in computational costs by covering only the influence of the atmospheric disturbances on the aircraft but neglecting changes in the atmospheric disturbance due to the interaction with the aircraft. With the applicability of the DVA established, it is used to investigate the alleviation of gust-induced loads on a single-aisle wing-fuselage configuration at transonic cruise flight. High-fidelity fluid-structure coupled simulations capture the influence of aeroelastic effects. Leading and trailing edge flaps distributed over the entire wing span are used for load alleviation. Three different deflection concepts are investigated and compared: dynamic flap deflection, static load redistribution, and a combination of both approaches. Their load alleviation potential and the impact of fluid-structure interaction are examined in detail, with dynamic flap deflection identified as the most promising approach. A subsequent study considering constraints on power consumption, installation space, and available actuators demonstrates the technical feasibility of the proposed approach.
