Aeroelastic analysis of swept pre-twisted wings

In this paper, aeroelastic modeling of aircraft wings with variations in sweep angle, taper ratio, and variable pre-twist angle along the span is considered. The wing structure is modeled as a classical beam with torsion and bending flexibility. The governing equations are derived based on Hamilton’s principle. Moreover, Peters’ finite state aerodynamic model which is modified to take into account the effects of the wing finite-span, the wing sweep angle, and the wing pre-twist angle, is used to simulate the aerodynamic loads on the wing. The coupled partially differential equations are discretized to a set of ordinary differential equations using Galerkin’s approach. By solving these equations the aeroelastic instability conditions are derived. The results are compared with some experimental and analytical results of previous published papers and good agreement is attained. Effects of the wing sweep angle, taper ratio, bending to torsional rigidity, and pre-twist angle on the flutter boundary in several cases are studied. Results show that these geometrical and physical parameters have considerable effects on the wing flutter boundary.     

考虑几何非线性的复合材料机翼气动弹性分析

本文研究结构几何非线性与气动力非平面效应对大展弦比复合材料机翼的气动弹性行为的影响．将非线性有限元法与曲面涡格法结合，计算机翼静气动弹性变形；通过曲面偶极子格网法结合静气动弹性平衡位置处的结构切线刚度，建立气动弹性方程并求解得到机翼颤振速度．针对板模型机翼，分析了迎角对机翼几何非线性气动弹性特性的影响．结果表明：本文复合材料板模型机翼的颤振形式不受水平弯曲模态影响，属于经典弯扭颤振；在几何非线性的影响下，机翼扭转频率随结构变形增大而明显减小，颤振速度随迎角增大而减小．     

Flutter and resonances of a flag near a free surface

We investigate the effects of a nearby free surface on the stability of a flexible plate in axial flow. Confinement by rigid boundaries is known to affect flag flutter thresholds and fluttering dynamics significantly, and this work considers the effects of a more general confinement involving a deformable free surface. To this end, a local linear stability is proposed for a flag in axial uniform flow and parallel to a free surface, using one-dimensional beam and potential flow models to revisit this classical fluid–structure interaction problem. The physical behaviour of the confining free surface is characterized by the Froude number, corresponding to the ratio of the incoming flow velocity to that of the gravity waves. After presenting the simplified limit of infinite span (i.e. two-dimensional problem), the results are generalized to include finite-span and lateral confinement effects. In both cases, three unstable regimes are identified for varying Froude number. Rigidly-confined flutter is observed for low Froude number, i.e. when the free surface behaves as a rigid wall, and is equivalent to the classical problem of the confined flag. When the flow and wave velocities are comparable, a new instability is observed before the onset of flutter (i.e. at lower reduced flow speed) and results from the resonance of a structural bending wave and one of the fundamental modes of surface gravity waves. Finally, for large Froude number (low effect of gravity), flutter is observed with significant but passive deformation of the free surface in response of the flag’s displacement.     

Effect of thrust on the aeroelastic instability of a composite swept wing with two engines in subsonic compressible flow

This paper aims to investigate aeroelastic stability boundary of subsonic wings under the effect of thrust of two engines. The wing structure is modeled as a tapered composite box-beam. Moreover, an indicial function based model is used to calculate the unsteady lift and moment distribution along the wing span in subsonic compressible flow. The two jet engines mounted on the wing are modeled as concentrated masses and the effect of thrust of each engine is applied as a follower force. Using Hamilton's principle along with Galerkin's method, the governing equations of motion are derived, then the obtained equations are solved in frequency domain using the K-method and the aeroelastic instability conditions are determined. The flutter analysis results of four example wings are compared with the experimental and analytical results in the literature and good agreements are achieved which validate the present model. Furthermore, based on several case studies on a reference wing, some attempts are performed to analyze the effect of thrust on the stability margin of the wing and some conclusions are outlined.     

Nonlinear aeroelasticity of high-aspect-ratio wings excited by time-dependent thrust

Effects of engine placement on flutter characteristics of a very flexible high-aspect-ratio wing are investigated using the code NATASHA (Nonlinear Aeroelastic Trim And Stability of HALE Aircraft). Gravity for this class of wings plays an important role in flutter characteristics. In the absence of aerodynamic and gravitational forces and without an engine, the kinetic energy of the first two modes are calculated. Maximum and minimum flutter speed locations coincide with the area of minimum and maximum kinetic energy of the second bending and torsion modes. Time-dependent dynamic behavior of a turboshaft engine (JetCat SP5) is simulated with a transient engine model and the nonlinear aeroelastic response of the wing to the engine’s time-dependent thrust and dynamic excitation is presented. Below the flutter speed, at the wing tip and behind the elastic axis, the impulse engine excitation leads to a stable limit cycle oscillation; and for the ramp kind of excitation, beyond the flutter speed, at 75 % span, behind the elastic axis, it produces chaotic oscillation in the wing. Both the excitations above the flutter speed are stabilized, inboard of the wing.     

Parametric aeroelastic modeling based on component modal synthesis and stability analysis for horizontally folding wing with hinge joints

To investigate the aeroelastic stability of a folding wing effectively, a parametric aeroelastic analysis approach is proposed. First, the fixed interface component modal synthesis is used to derive the structural dynamic equation for a folding wing, in which the elastic connection is considered. The unsteady aerodynamic model is established by the doublet lattice method (DLM), and the aeroelastic model is achieved from integration of the DLM with the component modal analysis. The generalized aerodynamic influence coefficient matrix is established by modes kept and constraint modes of each component. The aeroelastic stability of a folding wing is investigated based on the Gram matrix in control theory. The effectiveness of the proposed method is verified via comparison with traditional flutter eigenvalue analysis for both extended and folded configurations. The proposed method identifies coupled modes and improves computational efficiency when compared to classical aeroelastic stability analysis methods, such as the p–k method.     

Flow field around the flapping flag

The flapping flag is a canonical fluid–structure interaction problem that describes a cantilever plate with flow along its elastic axis. When the flapping flag loses stability it enters a large amplitude Limit Cycle Oscillation (LCO). While theoretical models can accurately predict the flutter velocity and frequency, there are still discrepancies between the experimental observations and the theoretical predictions of the post-critical LCO response. This note provides recent flow field visualizations in a single longitudinal plane for a cantilevered aluminum plate in axial flow during its LCO. Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV) techniques are used to show that the flow over the midspan of the plate is attached even during the violent LCO motion. This observation suggests that potential flow aerodynamic models may be able to capture the essential features in the flow field.     

Onset of instability of a flag in uniform flow

This paper numerically and analytically studies the onset of instability of a flag in uniform flow. The three-dimensional (3D) simulation is performed by using an immersed-boundary method coupled with a nonlinear finite element method. The global stability, bistability and instability are identified in the 3D simulations. The Squire's theorem is extended to analyze the stability of the fluid-flag system with 3D initial perturbations. It is found that if a parallel flow around the flag admits an unstable 3D disturbance for a certain value of the flutter speed, then a two-dimensional (2D) disturbance at a lower flutter speed is also admitted. In addition, the growth rate of 2D disturbance is larger than that of the 3D disturbance.     

Power extraction from aeroelastic limit cycle oscillations

Nonlinear limit cycle oscillations of an aeroelastic energy harvester are exploited for enhanced piezoelectric power generation from aerodynamic flows. Specifically, a flexible beam with piezoelectric laminates is excited by a uniform axial flow field in a manner analogous to a flapping flag such that the system delivers power to an electrical impedance load. Fluid–structure interaction is modeled by augmenting a system of nonlinear equations for an electroelastic beam with a discretized vortex-lattice potential flow model. Experimental results from a prototype aeroelastic energy harvester are also presented. Root mean square electrical power on the order of 2.5 mW was delivered below the flutter boundary of the test apparatus at a comparatively low wind speed of 27 m/s and a chord normalized limit cycle amplitude of 0.33. Moreover, subcritical limit cycles with chord normalized amplitudes of up to 0.46 were observed. Calculations indicate that the system tested here was able to access over 17% of the flow energy to which it was exposed. Methods for designing aeroelastic energy harvesters by exploiting nonlinear aeroelastic phenomena and potential improvements to existing relevant aerodynamic models are also discussed.     

CHAOTIC MOTIONS AND LIMIT CYCLE FLUTTER OF TWO-DIMENSIONAL WING IN SUPERSONIC FLOW

Based on the piston theory of supersonic flow and the energy method, the flutter motion equations of a two-dimensional wing with cubic stiffness in the pitching direction are established. The aeroelastic system contains both structural and aerodynamic nonlinearities. Hopf bifurcation theory is used to analyze the flutter speed of the system. The effects of system parameters on the flutter speed are studied. The 4th order Runge-Kutta method is used to calculate the stable limit cycle responses and chaotic motions of the aeroelastic system. Results show that the number and the stability of equilibrium points of the system vary with the increase of flow speed. Besides the simple limit cycle response of period 1, there are also period-doubling responses and chaotic motions in the flutter system. The route leading to chaos in the aeroelastic model used here is the period-doubling bifurcation. The chaotic motions in the system occur only when the flow speed is higher than the linear divergent speed and the initial condition is very small. Moreover, the flow speed regions in which the system behaves chaos axe very narrow.     

Aeroelastic instability of a composite wing with a powered-engine

In this paper the aeroelastic instability of a wing, modeled as an orthotropic composite beam with a concentrated mass subjected to the engine thrust, is investigated in an incompressible flow. The wing is modeled using classical beam theory. Wagner function is used to model the unsteady aerodynamic loads, while the engine thrust is modeled as a follower force and a concentrated mass is used to model the engine mass. The numerical results of the developed generic and simple model are compared with published results, and an excellent agreement is observed. The fiber orientation, engine thrust, mass magnitude and its location are reported to have had significant effects on the aeroelastic instability boundaries.     

Stability and coupled dynamics of three-dimensional dual inverted flags

Fluid–structure interaction of an inverted flag, which has a free leading edge and a clamped trailing edge, has drawn attention recently because of its novel properties such as divergence stability, a low stability threshold, and large-amplitude flapping motion. In this study, the stability and flapping behaviors of dual inverted flags with finite height are investigated for a side-by-side arrangement, and their noticeable characteristics are compared to those of dual conventional flags. The critical velocity at which the inverted flags break the equilibrium of a straight configuration reduces monotonically when a gap distance between the two flags becomes smaller and an aspect ratio becomes larger, which is also predicted by our linear stability analysis using simple theoretical models of two-dimensional flags and slender flags. After bifurcation, in addition to the synchronized in-phase and out-of-phase modes commonly observed in dual conventional flags, a novel attached mode appears which is mainly observed for small gap distance and small aspect ratio. In this non-linear mode, the leading edges of the two inverted flags touch each other on a midline, and the deformed inverted flags maintain static equilibrium. In a non-linear flapping regime, a new mechanism of a mode transition from an out-of-phase mode to an in-phase mode is identified, which is allowed by the collision of the two flags flapping with large amplitude.     

Limit cycle oscillations of two-dimensional panels in low subsonic flow

Limit cycle oscillations of a two-dimensional panel in low subsonic flow have been studied theoretically and experimentally. The panel is clamped at its leading edge and free at its trailing edge. A structural non-linearity arises in both the bending stiffness and the mass inertia. Two-dimensional incompressible (linear) vortex lattice aerodynamic theory and a corresponding reduced order aerodynamic model were used to calculate the linear flutter boundary and also the limit cycle oscillations (that occur beyond the linear flutter boundary).     

Experiments on transonic limit-cycle-flutter of a flexible swept wing

The aeroelastic behavior of wing models is nonlinear particularly in the transonic speed range. The interaction between aerodynamic and structural forces can lead to the occurrence of Limit-Cycle Oscillations (LCOs). If in addition the wing model is flexible and backward swept, the kinematic coupling between bending and torsion makes the situation even more complex.In the research project “Aerostabil” such a wing was investigated, which was equipped with pressure transducers in three sections and accelerometers. The experiments were performed in the adaptive test section of the transonic wind tunnel TWG in Göttingen. Already Dietz et al. (2003) have reported about experimental details and preliminary results. Based on these data Bendiksen (2008) studied numerically LCO-flutter behavior using a very similar, theoretical model (G-wing) and Stickan et al. (2014) used the original data as a LCO flutter test case. The influence of flexibility on the steady aerodynamics of the wing was described in Schewe & Mai (2018). In this paper now the flutter experiments with the same flexible model were analyzed systematically in the transonic range 0.84 <Ma <0.89 and for six angles of attack from 1.46°to 2.7°. Maps of stability, LCO amplitudes and instantaneous pressure distributions are presented. It was found that unstable regions are islands, whose extent depends on the angle of attack. A LCO test case, already treated in the literature is examined in more detail. The analysis of the time functions showed that during LCO-flutter the motion induced aerodynamic sectional lift forces particularly in the outer wing are asymmetric and thus acting as amplitude limiter. The reason for the asymmetry lies in the shock/boundary layer interaction. The test case, containing the stages of built-up and the transition to the limit cycle provides an excellent opportunity for improving our knowledge about LCOs and for code validation purposes.     

Dynamic analysis for axially moving viscoelastic panels

In this study, stability and dynamic behaviour of axially moving viscoelastic panels are investigated with the help of the classical modal analysis. We use the flat panel theory combined with the Kelvin–Voigt viscoelastic constitutive model, and we include the material derivative in the viscoelastic relations. Complex eigenvalues for the moving viscoelastic panel are studied with respect to the panel velocity, and the corresponding eigenfunctions are found using central finite differences. The governing equation for the transverse displacement of the panel is of fifth order in space, and thus five boundary conditions are set for the problem. The fifth condition is derived and set at the in-flow end for clamped–clamped and clamped-simply supported panels. The numerical results suggest that the moving viscoelastic panel undergoes divergence instability for low values of viscosity. They also show that the critical panel velocity increases when viscosity is increased and that the viscoelastic panel does not experience instability with a sufficiently high viscosity coefficient. For the cases with low viscosity, the modes and velocities corresponding to divergence instability are found numerically. We also report that the value of bending rigidity (bending stiffness) affects the distance between the divergence velocity and the flutter velocity: the higher the bending rigidity, the larger the distance.     

应用有限差分法的轴向流作用下叠层板的稳定性和模态分析

分析了轴向流作用下两端简支和固支叠层板的稳定性。基于势流理论建立轴向流作用下叠层板的流固耦合系统连续型运动方程,基于有限差分法建立了流场网格和结构网格统一的离散化格式,流场势函数用板的横向振动位移变量来表示,得到关于叠层板的横向振动位移变量的控制方程。求解控制方程的广义特征值,计算分析结果表明,两端简支和两端固支模型发生屈曲失稳,且得到了屈曲失稳临界速度与叠层板的层数和无量纲板间距的关系。此外,轴向流作用下叠层板的一阶模态并不是叠层板的同相弯曲模态。     

Cyber-physical flexible wing for aeroelastic investigations of stall and classical flutter

The fluid–structure interactions of a finite aspect ratio, cantilevered, flexible wing were investigated using a cyber-physical system to virtually augment the torsional dynamics of the wing. Cyber-physical systems (CPS), which have recently been pursued by a small number of research groups, have proven to be a very useful mechanism to interrogate the fluid–structure interaction parameter space. The premise of a CPS is to use dynamic feedback control to make a system behave according to desired equations of motion. Systems are composed of embedded hardware and software coupled with real-time computing to give the user the flexibility to quickly explore a range of structural parameters. With the advancement of modern control theory, robotics and embedded systems, CPSs integrate both simulation and physical properties into a smart structure which can be used to push the boundaries of research investigations.The CPS in this work allows for the investigation of dynamic aeroelastic instabilities of a three-dimensional, flexible, rectangular planform wing. Two dynamic instability regimes are observed: first, stall flutter, in which the torsional or pitch mode is excited through the dynamic stall process, and second, coupled (or classical) flutter, in which the pitch mode couples with the bending mode. By varying the torsional stiffness and therefore the frequency of torsional versus bending oscillations of the wing, both of these regimes can be attained at the same aerodynamic conditions using the CPS.     

Camber effects in the dynamic aeroelasticity of compliant airfoils

This paper numerically investigates the effect of chordwise flexibility on the dynamic stability of compliant airfoils. A classical two-dimensional aeroelastic model is expanded with an additional degree of freedom to capture time-varying camber deformations, defined by a parabolic bending profile of the mean aerodynamic chord. Aerodynamic forces are obtained from unsteady thin airfoil theory and the corresponding compliant-airfoil inertia and stiffness from finite-element analysis. V–g and state-space stability methods have been implemented in order to compute flutter speeds. The study looks at physical realizations with an increasing number of degrees of freedom, starting with a camber-alone system. It is shown that single camber leads to flutter, which occurs at a constant reduced frequency and is due to the lock in between the shed wake and the camber motion. The different combinations of camber deformations with pitch and plunge motions are also studied, including parametric analyses of their aeroelastic stability characteristics. A number of situations are identified in which the flutter boundary of the compliant airfoil exhibits a significant dip with respect to the rigid airfoil models. These results can be used as a first estimation of the aeroelastic stability boundaries of membrane-wing micro air vehicles.     

Aeroelastic behavior of a flag in ground effect

The aeroelastic behavior of a flexible plate subjected to a uniform axial flow is investigated in the presence of a rigid plane set parallel to the plate. It is shown that the ground effect reduces the flutter inflow velocity and strengthens the possibility of using the flag for extracting energy from winds and currents. The numerical analysis is carried out assuming that both the unsteady potential incompressible flow and the plate can be described with 2D models, i.e., a lumped vortex panel method and a nonlinear Euler–Bernoulli beam model, respectively, without losing the essential features of the fluid–structure interaction. Asymmetry of post-critical behavior (limit-cycle oscillations) and sensitivity of the results to the main flag parameters (distance from the ground, mass ratio and damping) are also considered, including also the energy distribution over the identified proper orthogonal modes. The investigated reduction of the flutter velocity in ground effect has been also confirmed with experimental tests relative to a polypropylene flag with and without the rigid panel mimicking the presence of the ground.     

On bimodal flutter behavior of a flexible airfoil

The dynamic aeroelastic behavior of an elastically supported airfoil is studied in order to investigate the possibilities of increasing critical flutter speed by exploiting its chord-wise flexibility. The flexible airfoil concept is implemented using a rigid airfoil-shaped leading edge, and a flexible thin laminated composite plate conformally attached to its trailing edge. The flutter behavior is studied in terms of the number of laminate plies used in the composite plate for a given aeroelastic system configuration. The flutter behavior is predicted by using an eigenfunction expansion approach which is also used to design a laminated plate in order to attain superior flutter characteristics. Such an airfoil is characterized by two types of flutter responses, the classical airfoil flutter and the plate flutter. Analysis shows that a significant increase in the critical flutter speed can be achieved with high plunge and low pitch stiffness in the region where the aeroelastic system exhibits a bimodal flutter behavior, e.g., where the airfoil flutter and the plate flutter occur simultaneously. The predicted flutter behavior of a flexible airfoil is experimentally verified by conducting a series of systematic aeroelastic system configurations wind tunnel flutter campaigns. The experimental investigations provide, for each type of flutter, a measured flutter response, including the one with indicated bimodal behavior.