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CHAPTER 5
F-16 TOOL DEVELOPMENT
Introduction
The tool development necessary for the specific F-16 cases analyzed will be discussed,
such as the reasons for analyzing a particular configuration based up previous limit cycle
oscillation (LCO) flight testing; as well as the turbulence model, temporal, and spatial
convergence studies necessary for a valid solution. Preliminary wind tunnel comparison results
will also be presented for the purpose of model and code validation.
Down-Select Methodology
Previous flight testing experience shows which analytically-predicted flutter solutions
manifest in LCO; however, as previously mentioned, this classical flutter-analysis method is not
capable of modeling nonlinear effects. Therefore, flutter flight testing is the only sure way of
determining true LCO response characteristics. Due to the high cost associated with flutter flight
testing, accompanied with the large possible number of configurations that the F-16 can carry, it
is vital that the fewest number of representative LCO cases are chosen for flight testing.
Representative in the sense that the flight flutter test results can clear other related downloads of
the configuration. This decision is usually based on historical flight test results and how they
correspond to traditional flutter analysis.
However, recent flight testing shows that nearly identical configurations, predicted to have
similar LCO results based on the traditional flutter analysis, result in drastically higher than
expected LCO amplitudes. The only differences in the configurations are slight aerodynamic
differences, such as missile length, missile fin shape, and missile body shape. Therefore, these
are the types of configurations that are most served by performing computational fluid dynamics
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