Engineering Commons^™

Aeroelastic Analysis Of Small-Scale Aircraft, Kent Roberts

Master's Theses

The structural design of flight vehicles is a balancing act between maximizing loading capability while minimizing weight. An engineer must consider not only the classical static structural yielding failure of a vehicle, but a variety of ways in which structural deformations can in turn, affect the loading conditions driving those deformations. Lift redistribution, divergence, and flutter are exactly such dynamic aeroelastic phenomena that must be properly characterized during the design of a vehicle; to do otherwise is to risk catastrophe. Relevant within the university context is the design of small-scale aircraft for student projects and of particular consideration, the DBF …

Development Of A State-Space Aeroelastic Model Of A Flexible T-Tail Aircraft For Flutter Analysis, Patrick S. Downs

Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses

Flutter prediction is an important part of the preliminary design process of any new aircraft. Current analysis methods include coupled fluid structure interaction codes and doublet lattice panel codes. The computation resources and time required for CFD solutions makes them unattractive for preliminary design and doublet lattice models require considerable pre and post processing to provide satisfactory results. Thus, a process for developing an analytical model to facilitate rapid design changes and the implementation of active control systems is the main motivation of this thesis. An analytical model is developed by first deriving the equations of motion of the structure …

Aeroelasticity Of Composite Plate Wings Using Hsdt And Higher-Order Fem, Justin A. Haught

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

The aeroelasticity of composite wings is becoming an increasingly researched topic in aircraft design, as designers continue to replace aluminum alloy components with those made of composite materials because of their favorable strength-to-weight ratio, fatigue characteristics, and corrosion resistance. Additionally, the bending-torsion coupling exhibited by composite laminates readily allow for the aeroelastic optimization of an aerodynamic structure through the process of aeroelastic tailoring. Wings made of composites materials, however, are more vulnerable to shear deformation.

The objective of the present research is to study the divergence and flutter characteristics of composite plate wings using a higher-order shear deformation theory (HSDT) …

Aeroelastic Analysis Of A Wind Turbine Blade Using The Harmonic Balance Method, Jason Charles Howison

Doctoral Dissertations

Most current wind turbine aeroelastic codes rely on the blade element momentum method with empirical corrections to compute aerodynamic forces on the wind turbine blades. While efficient, this method relies on experimental data and does not allow designers much flexibility for alternative blade designs. Unsteady solutions to the Navier-Stokes equations offer a significant improvement in aerodynamic modeling, but these are currently too computationally expensive to be useful in a design situation. However, steady-state solutions to the Navier-Stokes equations are possible with reasonable computation times. The harmonic balance method provides a way to represent unsteady, periodic flows through coupled a set …

Least-Squares Finite Element Formulation For Fluid-Structure Interaction, Cody C. Rasmussen

Theses and Dissertations

Fluid-structure interaction problems prove difficult due to the coupling between fluid and solid behavior. Typically, different theoretical formulations and numerical methods are used to solve fluid and structural problems separately. The least-squares finite element method is capable of accurately solving both fluid and structural problems. This capability allows for a simultaneously coupled fluid structure interaction formulation using a single variational approach to solve complex and nonlinear aeroelasticity problems. The least-squares finite element method was compared to commonly used methods for both structures and fluids individually. The fluid analysis was compared to finite differencing methods and the structural analysis type compared …

Dynamic Aeroelastic Analysis Of Wing/Store Configurations, Gregory H. Parker

Theses and Dissertations

Limit-cycle oscillation, or LCO, is an aeroelastic phenomenon characterized by limited amplitude, self-sustaining oscillations produced by fluid-structure interactions. In order to study this phenomenon, code was developed to interface a modal structural model with a commercial computational fluid dynamics program. LCO was simulated for a rectangular wing, referred to as the Goland⁺ wing. It was determined that the aerodynamic nonlinearity responsible for LCO in the Goland+ wing was the combination of strong trailing-edge and lambda shocks which periodically appear and disappear. This mechanism limited the flow of energy into the structure which quenched the growth of the flutter, resulting …

Quantifying Initial Condition And Parametric Uncertainties In A Nonlinear Aeroelastic System With An Efficient Stochastic Algorithm, Daniel R. Millman

Theses and Dissertations

There is a growing interest in understanding how uncertainties in flight conditions and structural parameters affect the character of a limit cycle oscillation (LCO) response, leading to failure of an aeroelastic system. Uncertainty quantification of a stochastic system (parametric uncertainty) with stochastic inputs (initial condition uncertainty) has traditionally been analyzed with Monte Carlo simulations (MCS). Probability density functions (PDF) of the LCO response are obtained from the MCS to estimate the probability of failure. A candidate approach to efficiently estimate the PDF of an LCO response is the stochastic projection method. The objective of this research is to extend the …

Nonlinear, Transonic Flutter Prediction For F-16 Stores Configuration Clearance, Raymond G. Toth

Theses and Dissertations

Wing flutter, or more accurately limit cycle oscillation (LCO), has been an issue for the F-16 since its operational deployment. Different store configurations and the permutations of those configurations after weapons are released will cause LCO to either disappear or appear. Unfortunately, the current method used by engineers for predicting LCO onset is based on linear, subsonic aerodynamic theory with no corrections for transonic effects. Predictions using this method are often good in frequency, but can be far off in predicting onset speed, forcing flutter engineers to rely more on experience and interpolation from similar configurations to design flight test …

Techniques For Reduced Order Modeling Of Aeroelastic Structures With Deforming Grids, John S. R. Anttonen

Theses and Dissertations

Reduced order modeling (ROM) seeks to make the modeling of aeroelastic behavior practical by reducing computation time for design codes. Deforming grids are often used in aeroelastic problems to account for the deformation of the structure. Proper Orthogonal Decomposition (POD/ROM) is a ROM technique that operates in an index-space for computations, not accounting for changes in grid dynamics, and must be modified to reflect grid deformation properly. To investigate and account for the effects of grid deformation on POD/ROM, a new algorithm is developed that incorporates modifications to the usual formulation. Evaluation of the new algorithm is accomplished through application …