Aeroelastic Response Induced by Free Play, Part 1: Theory

A computational code has been developed for aeroelastic analysis. The structural bending and torsional stiffness for an all-movable horizontal tail are basedupon the experimental data published inWrightAirDevelopmentCenter technical report 54-53 (Niles, R. H., and Spielberg, I. N., “Subsonic Flutter Tests of An Unswept All-Movable Horizontal Tail,”WrightAirDevelopment Center TR-54-53,March 1954.). A linear three-dimensional time domain vortex lattice aerodynamic model is used to study the flutter and also nonlinear limit-cycle oscillations induced by a free-play gap in the actuating mechanism at the root of the tail as well as the effects of the nominal angle of attack on limit-cycle oscillation response. It is found that the angle of attack significantly affects the limit-cycle oscillation behavior and if sufficiently largemay suppress the limit-cycle oscillation. The computed flutter results are compared with the experimental data with good quantitative agreement between theory and experiment for flutter in this paper, Part 1, and for limit-cycle oscillation in Part 2 (Tang, D., andDowell, E. H., “Aeroelastic Response Induced by Free Play, Part 2: Theoretical/Experimental Correlation Analysis,” AIAA Journal, Vol. 49, No. 11, 2011, pp. 2543– 2554).