Aeroelastic problems are encountered at the preliminary design stage of flexible wings for large aircraft. A three-dimensional finite element model of a high-aspect-ratio wing was built, and the influence of the front and rear spar positions on the results of the aeroelastic analysis and optimization was studied to improve the wing structure desgin. The most feasible and optimal solutions were effectively obtained by aeroelastic optimization. In particular, the position parameter of the front spar has a greater influence on the aeroelastic analysis and optimization than the rear spar. In addition, some key constraints became re- strictive leading to a rapid increase in the structural weight. Therefore, reasonable constraints were necessary for the optimization of results.
A linearization method and an engineering approach for the geometric nonlinear aeroelastic stability analysis of the very flexi- ble aircraft with high-aspect-ratio wings are established based on the little dynamic perturbation assumption.The engineering practicability of the method is validated by a complex example.For a high-altitude long-endurance unmanned aircraft,the nonlinear static deformations under straight flight and the gust loads are calculated.At the corresponding nonlinear equilibrium state,the complete aircraft is linearized dynamically and the vibration modes are calculated considering the large deformation effects.Then the unsteady aerodynamics are calculated by the double lattice method.Finally,the aeroelastic stability of the complete aircraft is analyzed.The results are compared with the traditional linear calculation.The work shows that the geometric nonlinearity induced by the large structural deformation leads to the motion coupling of the wing chordwise bending and the torsion,which changes the mode frequencies and mode shapes.This factors change the aeroelastic coupling relationship of the flexible modes leading to the decrease of the flutter speed.The traditional linear method would give not only an imprecise flutter speed but also a possible dramatic mistake on the stability.Hence,for a high-altitude long-endurance unmanned aircraft with high-aspect-ratio wings,or a similar very flexible aircraft,the geometric nonlinear aeroelastic analysis should be a necessary job in engineering practice.
A method for static aeroelastic analysis based on the high-order panel method and modal method is presented. The static aeroelastic characteristics of flexible wings are investigated using this method. Three-dimensional aerodynamic models of flexible wings are constructed based on the geometry of wing configuration, and the modal method is adopted to achieve the fluid-structure coupling. The static aeroelastic characteristics of the AGARD445.6 wing and a low-aspect-ratio wing are investigated in this study. The influences of elastic structural deformation on aerodynamic forces are studied with an emphasis analyzing the aerodynamic coefficients, wing root loads, structural deformation and pressure distribution of different sections, and results are compared with the results from wind-tunnel tests and the elastic results based on experimental aerodynamic forces. It is concluded that aerodynamic forces can be accurately calculated with the high-order panel method. The method presented in this study is feasible, credible and efficient. Comprehensive static aeroelastic characteristics can be provided by the method for early phases of aircraft design.
The modeling method and identified method adapted to multi-degree-of-freedom structures with strucrural nonlinearities are established.The component mode synthesis method is used to establish the nonlinear governing equations by extending the connected relationships.Based on the modeling method,the Hilbert transform method is applied to identify the nonlinear stiffness of multi-degree-of-freedom structures.Nonlinear analysis and identification of a typical folding wing configuration with three freeplay hinges are investigated.The nonlinear governing equation is established based on present methods and the computing results of different stiffness are checked by finite element programming.In order to illustrate the influence of the nonlinearities,the frequency response characteristics of the structure are analyzed and Hilbert transform is performed.The Hilbert transform identification method is utilized to identify the nonlinear stiffness of nonlinear hinges in the time domain and several parametric studies are performed.In addition,the comparison of response is made to illustrate the feasibility of the methods.The results show that the extending component mode synthesis method in the present work can be used to establish the governing equation with structural nonlinearities.Based on the modeling method,the Hilbert transform identified method can be extended to multi-degree-of-freedom structures accurately.
Model uncertainty directly affects the accuracy of robust flutter and limit-cycle-oscillation (LCO) analysis. Using a data-based method, the bounds of an uncertain block-oriented aeroelastic system with nonlinearity are obtained in the time domain. Then robust LCO analysis of the identified model set is performed. First, the proper orthonormal basis is constructed based on the on-line dynamic poles of the aeroelastic system. Accordingly, the identification problem of uncertain model is converted to a nonlinear optimization of the upper and lower bounds for uncertain parameters estimation. By replacing the identified memoryless nonlinear operators by its related sinusoidal-input describing function, the Linear Fractional Transformation (LFT) technique is applied to the modeling process. Finally, the structured singular value(μ) method is applied to robust LCO analysis. An example of a two-degree wing section is carded out to validate the framework above. Results indicate that the dynamic characteristics and model uncertainties of the aeroelastic system can be depicted by the identified uncertain model set. The robust LCO magnitude of pitch angle for the identified uncertain model is lower than that of the nominal model at the same velocity. This method can be applied to robust flutter and LCO prediction.
