Limit Cycle Oscillations (LCO) and Nonlinear Aeroelastic Wing Response: Reduced Order Aerodynamic Models

Abstract

A nonlinear, aeroelastic analysis of a low aspect, delta wing modeled as a plate of constant thickness demonstrates that limit cycle oscillations (LCO) of the order of the plate thickness are possible. The structural nonlinearity arises from double bending in both the chordwise and spanwise directions. The present results using a vortex lattice aerodynamic model for a low Mach number flow complement earlier studies for rectangular wing platforms that showed similar qualitative results. The theoretical results for the flutter boundary (beyond which LCO occurs) have been validated by comparison to the experimental data reported by other investigators for the low aspect ratio delta wings. Also the limit cycle oscillations found experimentally by previous investigators (but not previously quantified prior to the present work) are consistent with the theoretical results reported here. Reduced order aerodynamic and structural models are used to substantially decrease computational cost with no loss in accuracy. Without the use of reduced order models, calculations of the LCO would be impractical. A wind tunnel model is tested to provide a quantitative experimental correlation with the theoretical results for the LCO response itself.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Apr 01, 1999
Accession Number
ADA362982

Entities

People

  • Earl H. Dowell

Organizations

  • Duke University

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Human Systems
  • Space

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Air Force Research Laboratories
  • Airfoils
  • Aspect Ratio
  • Boundary Layer
  • Computational Fluid Dynamics
  • Delta Wings
  • Engineering
  • Equations
  • Fluid Dynamics
  • Frequency Domain
  • Mach Number
  • Mechanical Engineering
  • Models
  • Unsteady Aerodynamics
  • Unsteady Flow
  • Viscous Flow
  • Wind Tunnels

Fields of Study

  • Physics

Readers

  • Computational Modeling and Simulation
  • Fluid Mechanics and Fluid Dynamics.
  • Structural Dynamics.