Amirkabir University of Technology

Department of Aerospace Engineering

Aeroelasticity
Lecture 1&2:
Introduction to Aeroelasticity
H. Shahverdi

Course Objectives
This course is a collection of special topics in
the application of solid and fluid interaction in
aerospace
area,
which
is
called
aeroelasticity. It quantifies the effects of the
inertial,
structural
and
aerodynamic
parameters that affect divergence, control
surface reversal and flutter and calculation
of critical speeds for these phenomena for
simple wings using steady, and in the case of
flutter, unsteady aerodynamic assumptions.
Amirkabir university of Technology

References

Dowell, E. H., Crawley, E. F., Curtiss Jr., H. C., Peters, D. A.,

Scanlan, R. H., and Sisto, F., A Modern Course in Aeroelasticity,
Kluwer Academic Publishers, Fourth edition, 2004.
Hodges, D. H. and Pierce, G. A., Introduction to Structural Dynamics
and Aeroelasticity, Cambridge Aerospace Series, 2002.
Other useful references:
Bisplinghoff, R. and Ashley, H., Principles of Aeroelasticity, Dover,
1962.
Bisplinghoff, R., Ashley, H., and Halfman, R. L., Aeroelasticity,
Dover, 1955.
Fung, Y. C., An Introduction to the Theory of Aeroelasticity, 1955
(Dover, 1969).
Amirkabir university of Technology

Scanlan, R. H. and Rosenbaum, Introduction to the Study of Aircraft

Vibration and Flutter, The Macmillian Co., 1951.

Dowell, E. H., Aeroelasticity of Plates and Shells, Noordhoff

International Publishing, 1975.

Amirkabir university of Technology

Course Topics
Introduction to Aeroelasticity
What is Aeroelasticity?
Historical Review

Static Aeroelasticity
Divergence of Typical Section
Control Surface Reversal
Divergence of 1-D Structures (Straight and
Swept Wings)
Amirkabir university of Technology

Mode Summation Method

Aeroelastic Tailoring

Aerodynamic Modeling
Steady Aerodynamic
Quasi-steady Aerodynamic
Unsteady Aerodynamic
Gust Response
Supersonic model

Amirkabir university of Technology

 Dynamic Aeroelasticity
The Physical Explanation of Flutter
Aeroelastic Equations
Stability Analysis Methods
Flutter of 1-D Structures (Straight and Swept
Wings)
Flutter of 3-D wing
Panel Flutter

Amirkabir university of Technology

Evaluation
Home work (10)
Project & Research (40-50)
Final exam (40-50)

Amirkabir university of Technology

Introduction to Aeroelasticity
What is Aeroelasticity?
Aereolasticity is the study of the interaction of
inertial, structural and aerodynamic forces on
aircraft, bildings, surface vehicles , flexible pipes,
nuclear engineering, turbomachinery

Introduction

Amirkabir university of Technology

10

Introduction to Aeroelasticity
Collar Diagram:

Other applications:

Aerothermoelasticity

Aeroservoeroelasticity

Introduction

Amirkabir university of Technology

11

 Why is it important?
The interaction between these three forces can
cause several undesirable phenomena:
Static Aeroelasticity:
o Divergence

Dynamic Aeroelasticity:
o Flutter
o Limit Cycle Oscillations (nonlinear aeroelastic
phenomenon)
o Vortex shedding, buffeting, galloping (unsteady
aerodynamic phenomena)
Introduction

Amirkabir university of Technology

12

Static Aeroelasticy
Divergence:

Introduction

Amirkabir university of Technology

13

Static Aeroelasticy

Introduction

Amirkabir university of Technology

14

Dynamic Aeroelasticity
Flutter:
Dynamic instability where-by the system extracts
energy from the free stream flow producing a
divergent response.
Divergent behavior can occur within a few cycles
and be catastrophic.

Introduction

Amirkabir university of Technology

15

Dynamic Aeroelasticity
Flutter
Usually resultant of coupling of 2 or more
structural modes
Wing bending and torsion
Wing bending and control surface hinge
torsion
Wing torsion and fuselage bending
Horizontal or vertical tail and fuselage

Introduction

Amirkabir university of Technology

16

Dynamic Aeroelasticity
Flutter
Solution methodology:

it
Introduction

Amirkabir university of Technology

17

Dynamic Aeroelasticity
Flutter
Eigen analysis results

Introduction

Amirkabir university of Technology

18

Dynamic Aeroelasticity

Introduction

Amirkabir university of Technology

19

Dynamic Aeroelasticity
Buffet:
Response due to time-dependent separated flows
impinging on Structural surfaces.
Bluffed bodies on horizontal and vertical
surfaces
Wings, strakes etc.. on vertical tails (often a twin
tail problem)
Reduces structural life

Introduction

Amirkabir university of Technology

20

SpaceShip2 Mega-Strake

Amirkabir university of Technology

21

Buffet

Introduction

Amirkabir university of Technology

22

Buffet

Introduction

Amirkabir university of Technology

23

Dynamic Aeroelasticity
Vortex Shedding:
In fluid dynamics, vortex shedding is an unsteady
oscillating flow that takes place when a fluid such
as air or water flows past a blunt cylindrical body at
certain velocities, depending to the size and shape
of the body. In this flow, vortices are created at the
back of the body and detach periodically from
either side of the body.

Introduction

Amirkabir university of Technology

24

Vortex Shedding

Vortex shedding behind a circular cylinder. In this animation, the flow

on the two sides of the cylinder are shown in different colors, to show
that the vortices from the two sides alternate. Courtesy, Cesareo de La
Rosa Siqueira.

Introduction

Amirkabir university of Technology

25

Dynamic Aeroelasticity
Limit Cycle Oscillations (LCO):
Typically caused by shock induced oscillations on
a surface or flow/shocks attaching/detaching from
a surface trailing edge.
Panel Flutter
Control Surface Buzz
Store/Wing configurations
Reduces structural life

Introduction

Amirkabir university of Technology

26

Limit Cycle Oscillations

U = 36 (m/s) - Nonlinear Solution

3

'

Torsion Coef.()

U = 36 (m/s) - Nonlinear Solution

3

-1

-1

-2

-2

-3

Introduction

2
3
time (sec)

-3
-1

-0.5

0.5

Amirkabir university of Technology

27

Dynamic Aeroelasticity
Dynamic Response:
Transient response due to a rapidly applied load.
Atmospheric Turbulence
Continuous random
Discrete random (gust)

Landing loads
Snap maneuvers
Store Separation
Introduction

Amirkabir university of Technology

28

A bit of history
The first ever flutter incident occurred on the
Handley Page O/400 bomber in 1916 in the UK.
A fuselage torsion mode coupled with an antisymmetric
elevator mode (the elevators were independently
actuated).
The problem was solved by coupling the elevators.

Introduction

Amirkabir university of Technology

29

More History
Control surface flutter became a frequent
phenomenon during World War I.
It was solved by placing a mass balance around
the control surface hinge line.

Introduction

Amirkabir university of Technology

30

Amirkabir university of Technology

31

Historic examples
Aircraft that experienced aeroelastic phenomena
Handley Page O/400 (elevators-fuselage)
Junkers JU90 (fluttered during flight flutter test)
P80, F100, F14 (transonic aileron buzz)
T46A (servo tab flutter)
F16, F18 (external stores LCO, buffeting)
F111 (external stores LCO)
F117, E-6 (vertical fin flutter)

Read Historical Development of Aircraft Flutter,

I.E. Garrick, W.H. Reed III, Journal of Aircraft,
18(11), 897-912, 1981
Introduction

Amirkabir university of Technology

32

Aeroelasticity
How to avoid these phenomena?
Aeroelastic Design (Divergence, Flutter, Control
Reversal)
Wind tunnel testing (Aeroelastic scaling)
Ground Vibration Testing (Complete modal
analysis of aircraft structure)
Flight Flutter Testing (Demonstrate that flight
envelope is flutter free)

Introduction

Amirkabir university of Technology

33

Wind Tunnel Testing

Introduction

Amirkabir university of Technology

34

Ground Vibration Testing

Introduction

Amirkabir university of Technology

35

Introduction

Amirkabir university of Technology

36

Flight Flutter Testing

Introduction

Amirkabir university of Technology

37

Aeroelastic Software
Global Aeroelastic Software Developments:
MSC/NASTRAN (U.S.)
UAI/ASTROS (recently bought by MSC) (U.S.)
UAI/NASTRAN (U.S.)
ELFINI (France, Dessault)
LAGRANGE (Germany, formerly MBB)
Introduction

Amirkabir university of Technology

38

Aeroelastic Software
STARS (Great Britain, RAE)
OPTSYS (Sweden, SAAB)
COMPASS (China)
ARGON (Russia, Central Aerohydrodynamic

Institute)

Introduction

Amirkabir university of Technology

39