Flutter Modelling and Computation of a Flying Wing Aircraft
Yuguang Bai *
School of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian, China.
Xiaole Xu
School of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian, China.
Sheng Zhang
School of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian, China.
*Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Abstract
Flying wing aircraft has many encouraging advantages, but there still were many unsteady aerodynamic uncertainty of the structures. Dynamic stability is a most significant analysis object. This paper wants to propose the flutter characteristic of a real flying wing aircraft. Firstly, an efficient finite element modelling method was taken to find basic dynamic features of the presented aircraft with effective mode analysis. Typical dynamic characteristics including bending and twisting modes of the structure were analyzed to propose possible dynamic stability of the aircraft. Secondly, a frequency domain fluid-structure interaction method was proposed to solve flutter analysis problem of the aircraft. With different heights and Ma number, flutter features of the aircraft were presented. It was seen from the computational results that dynamic stability analysis is necessary for the flying wing aircraft with proper flight velocity and height. The present dynamic modelling method and flutter computation process can give an effect reference for the design of flying wing aircraft. Also it can provide useful suggestions for existing flying wing aircraft structures.
Keywords: Flying wing aircraft, FEM, dynamic characteristics, flutter