The Influence of Ballistic Damage on the Aeroelastic Characteristics of Lifting Surfaces.

Abstract

An investigation is carried out to determine whether ballistic damage can seriously degrade the aeroelastic integrity of lifting surfaces on aircraft. A promising aeroelastic failure mechanism is identified that results from the localized drag generated when a lifting surface encounters severe damage to its aerodynamic shape. This damage induced drag is shown to significantly decrease the divergence speed of a generic or statistical fighter wing for certain damage site locations while increasing the flutter speed of the wing. Consequently, a critical damage level exits where divergence becomes the critical aeroelastic instability for a wing which may still have adequate strength and flutter integrity. In view of the very limited information existing on the aerodynamic modeling of damaged lifting surfaces, a combined analytical and experimental modeling study was initiated to investigate the flow field in the vicinity of thru hole type damages on lifting surfaces. (Author)

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Jul 01, 1979
Accession Number
ADA082536

Entities

People

  • A. Sigal
  • D. S. Scott
  • J. C. Westkaemper
  • R. O. Stearman

Organizations

  • University of Texas at Austin

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Space
  • Weapons Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Aerodynamic Characteristics
  • Aerodynamic Configurations
  • Aerodynamic Forces
  • Aircraft Wings
  • Aircrafts
  • Airframes
  • Failure Mode And Effect Analysis
  • Fighter Aircraft
  • Fluid Dynamics
  • Geometry
  • High Lift Devices
  • Leading Edge Flaps
  • Leading Edges
  • Plastic Explosives
  • Spars
  • Swept Wings
  • Wind Tunnels

Fields of Study

  • Engineering
  • Physics

Readers

  • Aerodynamics.
  • Computational Modeling and Simulation
  • Explosive Engineering.