Optimization of structures to satisfy flutter requirements.

A numerical procedure is developed for determining the relative proportions of selected elements of an aircraft structure, to attain a specified flutter speed with minimum total mass. The procedure is based on a finite-element idealization of the structure. Lagrange multipliers are employed to introduce the conditions for neutral dynamic stability (flutter equations) as dynamic constraints. The resulting system of nonlinear equations is solved by the Newton-Raphson process to determine the masses of the elements of the system. b [B] [C] [K]