Title: Dynamic Response of the VEGA C Launch Vehicle Subjected to Wind Effect on Ground
Presented at: EUCASS 2025

We are pleased to announce that the presentation developed through the collaboration between AVIO, RBF Morph, and the University of Rome Tor Vergata is now available for download.

Authors:
Fabio Paglia (AVIO)
Marta Colella (AVIO)
Marco E. Biancolini (University of Rome Tor Vergata)
Ubaldo Cella (RBF Morph)

This work presents a methodology for evaluating the aeroelastic response of the VEGA C launch vehicle on ground under wind loading, leveraging modal-based fluid–structure interaction (FSI) supported by Radial Basis Function (RBF) mesh morphing.

AVIO provided the industrial framework, problem definition, and validation context, ensuring the engineering relevance of the study within the operational environment of the VEGA C launch system.

The University of Rome Tor Vergata contributed to the development of the theoretical framework, including the modal decomposition and structural modeling techniques for dynamic wind effects.

RBF Morph enabled high-fidelity aerodynamic simulations via efficient parametric mesh morphing, supporting both steady and unsteady FSI analyses.

The methodology combines Finite Element Analysis (FEA) and Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) within a reduced-order modeling (ROM) approach, which uses a modal superposition technique to reconstruct the structural response and to drive aerodynamic simulations through a series of precomputed, morphed CFD meshes. By projecting the dynamics onto a limited number of modal coordinates, the ROM framework achieves significant computational savings while maintaining accuracy, enabling fast and reliable evaluation of wind-induced dynamic loads during ground operations.

The presentation includes numerical results, validation steps, and a workflow suitable for future applications in launch vehicle safety and certification studies.

You can download the presentation here.