The status of CFD related to structural design of aircraft

There are some topics that are reminded of by the consolidation of Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) and structural design of aircraft; static aerodynamic loads, thermal structure design, aeroelasticity and so on. At the present, it is difficult, from the viewpoint of the cost, to introduce the CFD techniques fully into the structural design processes except for a certain kind of static problems. In the present report, the roles of CFD in the structural design of aircraft will be demonstrated focusing on the example of aeroelastic design of NAL's (National Aerospace Laboratory) non-powered experimental aircraft. The outline of NATAS (Numerical Aeroelastic Testing and Assessment System) are shown, which is being developed at NAL for the effective use of CFD results in the interdisciplinary problems.