Aeroelastic behaviour of forward swept wings: Understanding the 3D aerodynamics using representative gust profiles

Unconventional aircraft configurations like forward swept wings have the potential of delaying turbulent transition at the cruising transonic condition; thus increasing aerodynamic efficiency (Kruger et al. (2014)). However, a well-known problem with forward swept wings is that they are inherently aeroelastically unstable.

A solution proposed to tackle this problem is the semi-aeroelastic hinge (SAH) concept shown to increase stability for backward swept wings.

The two big research questions I would like to tackle when it comes to applying the SAH concept to forward swept wings are: 1) Does the introduction of sweep change the 3D unsteady aerodynamic in a stabilising manner? 2) Are the empirical corrections from continuous gust analysis still valid?