Simulation of Aerial Refueling System with Multibody Dynamics and CFD

A coupled simulation of multibody dynamics and Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) is implemented to investigate the motion of an aerial refueling hose-drogue with a receiver aircraft approaching. The hose is modeled by a chain of one-dimensional absolute nodal coordinate cable elements, with the cable elasticity and bending effects considered. Structured overlapped grids are applied around the receiver aircraft and the rigid drogue attached to the end of the hose. A multibody simulation code is embedded in the RANS solver to analyze the structure dynamics and the fluid dynamics for each coupled iteration loop. Various approaching velocity profiles are tested and the "push-out" effect is observed. Approaching simulations with the receiver aircraft in different initial offsets are performed and analyzed. It is concluded that with certain approaching parameters, a good coupling between the receiver's probe and the drogue is expected.