Impact of aeroelastic uncertainties on the sonic boom signature of a commercial supersonic transport configuration

The sonic boom signature and loudness values of a supersonic vehicle depend on its flight shape. In this study, we investigate how the aeroelastic deformations and the aeroelastic uncertainties arising from structural parameter variations can affect the sonic boom response. A high fidelity aeroelastic framework based on viscous flow solutions and modal aeroelastic coupling is employed using FUN3D, and the near-pressure distribution is propagated to the ground using sBOOM, an augmented Burger's equation-based aeroacoustic solver. The current work is carried out under NASA's Commercial Supersonic Technology Project, and the analyses are focused on the LM-1044 aircraft configuration as a low boom N+2 supersonic vehicle design. Results obtained from a rigid mesh and an aeroelastically deformed mesh are compared to understand the impact of wing deformation on sonic boom. An uncertainty quantification study is then conducted using a non-intrusive polynomial chaos expansion, by propagating a set of random material variables through the complete analysis process, in order to compute random uctuations in the sonic boom signature.