Auld 2007-2012 : www.aerodynamics4students.

com
AEROELASTICITY
Wing - Flutter and Divergence.
The dynamic interaction of airflow with a flight vehicle is one of the more comle! ro"lems to "e
solved in the aerosace field. #ost aerodynamics deals with flow around rigid o"$ects "ut% in fact% a
flight vehicle is relatively light and there is always a degree of fle!i"ility that can lead to interesting
modes of motion. Aerodynamic forces alied to a vehicle will not only cause it to change flight ath
according to the rules of aircraft erformance and flight mechanics "ut will also cause fle!ure of aircraft
comonents relative to each other. These forced structural modes of motion lead to a class of ro"lems
that fall under the heading of aeroelasticity.
&ne of the simlest interactions that is found in a fi!ed wing aircraft is the fle!ure of the wing relative to
the rigid fuselage. 'or aircraft with slender straight cantilever wings two tyical modes of motion e!ist.
The first is a "ending mode where the wing ti fle!es u and down relative to the fi!ed wing root. The
second is a twisting mode where the wing rotates a"out its stiffness a!is% which is tyically the sar.
(ormally there is minimal effect of these two modes on structural "ehaviour% with only a slight vi"ration
"eing seen for each motion. The "ending mode shows u as a relatively low fre)uency flaing effect
while twisting mode is found to "e a much higher fre)uency vi"ration. *owever% with the alication of
high-seed airflow as a source of e!citation energy% these two modes can roduce motions with will
severely distort or "rea+ the wing.
The first effect is called divergence. ,n this case the moment roduced "y the air load is greater than
the structural torsional stiffness of the wing and thus it will "e twisted off the vehicle. The threshold
seed for this tye of failure to occur is called divergence seed and will hoefully "e much higher than
any normal oerating seeds of the vehicle. -articular ro"lems occur with swet forward wings as
these have a relatively low divergence seed.
The second effect is called flutter. ,n this case there is a synchronised interaction "etween "oth modes
so that energy is a"sor"ed from the airflow in one mode to increase the amlitude of the other. At this
oint the fre)uency of each mode has converged to the same value so that only one com"ined mode is
ossi"le. The wing will a"sor" energy from the airflow and will "ehave as an ever increasing "ending
and torsion fle!ure until sufficient dislacement is reached and the wing "rea+s. .hen the airflow is
increased to the critical oint to cause this failure% it is called the flutter seed. Again flutter should only
occur at seeds much higher than oerating seeds of the aircraft% "ut may "e induced "y inaroriate
ratio of wing torsion and "ending stiffness% or "y addition of wing mass at oints a long way "ehind the
wing sar.
An estimate of the occurrence of these conditions and the interaction of airflow on a wing can "e
o"tained using a simle 2-degree of freedom /2dof0 dynamic model of the wing. The following figure
shows the idealised model of a straight cantilever wing.
1ending stiffness of wing connected to the fuselage can "e aro!imated "y a "ending sring of
stiffness K
h
. Torsion stiffness is similarly reresented "y a torsion sring of stiffness K

. This
allows the generic wing section shown to move relative to the fuselage in "ending% /heave direction% h0
and torsion /angle rotation%0 . The origin for these motions will "e the wing2s elastic a!is. ,t is
assumed that the centre of gravity of the wing and the centre of lift act at the locations shown% with
distances !cg and !ac form these oints to the elastic a!is. 3econd order effects due to aerodynamic
drag and structural daming have "een neglected.
1y alying (ewton2s laws for "oth motion comonents a air of reaction e)uations can "e defined.
F=m.a % general rincile% force roduces acceleration moderated "y inertia.
LK
h
. h=m
d
2
h
dt
2
S

d
2

dt
2
for "ending motion and
L. x
ac
K

. =I

d
2

dt
2
S

d
2
h
dt
2
for torsion motion%
where
m 4 mass of wing% I

4 olar inertia of wing / I

r
2
. dm 0 and due to the offset of center of
gravity from motion origin% a couling is roduced "etween each mode moderated "y a couling inertia
S

% / S

r . dm x
cg
. m 0
The form of the vi"ration can "e assumed to "e simle harmonic motion such that h=h
0
. e
i t
and
=
0
. e
i t
% where h
0
and
0
are the amlitudes of the motion and is the fre)uency.
(ote that "oth amlitudes and fre)uency can "e comle! values to allow for hase shift "etween
comonents and daming of motion.
Also% if simle harmonic motion is assumed% then the stiffness of the wing for "ending and torsion
modes can "e found from the +nown natural fre)uencies of these modes.
K
h
=
2
. m and K

=
2
. I

.
&n su"stitution of the assumed motion into the governing e)uations a linear air of simultaneous
e)uations are o"tained.
LK
h
. h
0
. e
i t
=m.
2
. h
0.
e
i t
S

.
2
.
0
. e
i t

L. x
ac
K

.
0
. e
i t
=I

.
2
.
0
. e
i t
S

.
2
. h
0
. e
i t

To simlify further% linear aerodynamic forcing functions need to "e alied. Assuming that the effect of
cam"er and fi!ed angle of attac+ are a"le to "e calculated searately and then suerimosed on any
oscillatory solution% the aerodynamics re)uired at this oint is $ust due to the oscillatory motion of the
chord line a"out 0 degrees. Assuming torsion effect dominates as it has greatest influence on angle of
attac+% and neglecting any second order acoustic% comressi"ility effects then lift could "e
aro!imated as%
L =
d C
L
d
..
1
2
. . V
2
. S =
d C
L
d
. . q.S =
d C
L
d
.
0
. q.S. e
i t
on su"stitution then a final linear system is o"tained% with
e
i t
cancelling out.
d C
L
d
.
0
. q.SK
h
. h
0
= m.
2
. h
0
S

.
2
.
0
d C
L
d
.
0
. q.S.x
ac
K

.
0
= I

.
2
.
0
S

.
2
. h
0
in matri! format this "ecomes%
[
m.
2
K
h
S

.
2

dC
L
d
. q.S
S

.
2
I

.
2
K

dC
L
d
. q.S.x
ac
]
.
{
h
0

0
}
=
{
0
0
}
.
Although not directly solva"le due to the num"er of varia"les% this matri! does give a large amount of
information a"out the "ehaviour of the system.
Two classes of solution are ossi"le:
1.
[
a b
c d
]
.
{
h
0

0
}
=
{
0
0
}
when
{
h
0

0
}
=
{
0
0
}
The system is trivially sta"le and nothing haens. This is the dominant solution for the system.
2.
[
a b
c d
]
.
{
h
0

0
}
=
{
0
0
}
when

a b
c d

= 0
This second form of solution may allow dislacements to "e un"ounded and the wing "ehaviour
will tend to "e oscillatory% either sta"le or unsta"le deending on the value of . This
solution will redict the onset of growing amlitude solutions such as flutter and divergence.
The e)uation

a b
c d

= a.d b.c = 0 gives tyes solution for "ased mostly of the seed
of the vehicle and hence controlled "y the value of q .
Simple Harmnic !tin leading t Flutter
,f has only comle! solutions and no real valued solutions e!ist then the system "ehaviour will "e
oscillatory and given initial distur"ance values of
0
, h
0
%su"se)uent motion will "e simle harmonic
and either damed /decreasing amlitude0 or undamed /increasing amlitude0 deending on the
imaginary art of .
5omle! values of fre)uency / =
R
i .
I
0 moderate the amlitude "ehaviour over time as
e
i t
=e
i
R
i .
I
t
=e
i
R
t
. e
i
2

I
t
=e

I
t
. e
i
R
t
. The final hysical fre)uency of motion will "e given "y

R
and the growth or decay of the motion will "e determined "y the sign of
I
.
At low values of dynamic ressure% )% the solution to this system matri! gives searate indeendent
rooots for which are tyically real valued and close to the natural fre)uencies of the structural
modes. This imlies that any distur"ances will cause the wing to oscillate at or near its structural
modes with little or no daming. 3econd order daming effects which are not art of the a"ove model
will tyically decrease the amlitude of oscillation in a real structure til it reaches 6ero and then o"eys
the trival 6ero amlitude sta"le solution.
,ncreasing dynamic ressure will eventually result in a solution in which has only one real value
indicating the "oth modes are in syncronisation. .hile there is no indication of a variation of amlitude
at this oint% any slight increase in ) will then roduce comle! fre)uency solutions with negative
imaginary comonents. 3o any increase in flight seed a"ove this oint causes couling of the modes
and a raid increase in amlititude of the oscillation% that is flutter.
The seed at which a single real fre)uency is o"tained is the starting oint for undamed oscillatory
solutions of the structure so that this will termed the flutter seed fo the vehicle. 3o one significant aim
is to solve the determinant e)uation a"ove to find flutter seed.
'irstly define the e)uation of the determinant set to 6ero%
m.
2
K
h
.

.
2
K

dC
L
d
. q.S.x
ac

.
2
.

.
2

dC
L
d
. q.S

= 0
,n order to solve for % the e)uation is rearranged in owers of .
A
4
B
2
C = 0
where%
A = m.I

2
B = S

.
dC
L
d
. q.Sm.
dC
L
d
. q.S.x
ac
m.K

. K
h
C = K
h
. K

K
h
.
dC
L
d
. q.S.X
ac
.
The solution is

2
=
BB
2
4.A.C
2.A
.
1ased on the magnitudes of A% 1 and 5 % the solution will "e urely real and signle valued when
B
2
=4.A.C . At this oint the solution for a single real fre)uency e!ists roducing the start of flutter.
Any increase in 7)7 roduces comle! roots leading to unsta"le% increasing amlitude motion.
'rom o"servation of the comonents of coefficients A%1%5 it is ossi"le to redict the fluuter seed "ut
also identifies ways to modify it "y maniulating distances "etween center of mass and aerodynamic
center% inertias and aerodynamic derivative magnitudes.
3ee "elow for a numerical algorithm that can "e used to estimate solutions% given the arameters that
ma+e u the coefficients A%1 and 5.
"n-O#cillatr$ !tin leading t Divergence
As well as flutter redictions the solution of the determinant e)uation can also indicate another non-
oscillatory increasing amlitude motion called divergence. ,f the real art of is 6ero then the
motion could "e either e!onentially increasing or decreasing. Again at low seed% the system tends to
roduce non-6ero solutions for
R
. Then as seed is increased%
R
may decrease for some
modes. ,f
R
reaches 6ero for a mode "efore the onset of flutter% then su"se)uent increase in
dynamic ressure will lead to a solution which is urely imaginary and hence a hysical divergence of
the structure.
3o divergence seed can "e defined as the solution of the determinant e)uation for =0 .
3u"stitution into the e!anded e)uation a"ove gives%
K
h
.

dC
L
d
. q.S.x
ac

= 0
or K

=
dC
L
d
. q.S.x
ac
As all terms are fi!ed for a given wing geometry e!cet for q, then can "e used to determine the air
seed re)uired to reach the oint where the aerodynamic moment e)uals the torsional stiffness of the
wing so there will "e an unrestrained twist dislacement.
3&'T.A89 and :&.(;&A:3
The following server alication calculates fre)uency resonses for airflow alied over a range of
velocities to a wing of given geometry% inertia and stiffness.
.ing "ending-torsion interaction redictions.
The following video shows a wind tunnel e!eriment using a scaled <: wing in a low seed wind
tunnel. The airseed is slowly increased until the flutter seed is reached.
.ing 'lutter #ovie
19'&89 :=8,(> A'T98
8eturn to Ta"le of 5ontents