Aeroelastic stability characteristics of a composite swept wing withtip weights for an unrestrained vehicle

An analytical investigation to determine aeroelastic flutter and divergence behavior of a composite, forwardswept rectangular wing was conducted. It is assumed that the wing is carrying a fuselage at its semispan, a pylon at the wing tip, and that the aircraft is in a free-flight condition (unrestrained vehicle). The influence, due to the variation in the bending-torsion stiffness coupling of the tailored wing on the flutter and divergence critical dynamic pressure, is analyzed. The paper discusses the influence of the warping effect on the system's flutter and divergence velocities. The aeroelastic stability behavior of the system is obtained by applying an optimization procedure that solves exactly the coupled bending-torsion equations of motion for the unrestrained swept-wing aircraft. The results of the present study indicate that the warping effect significantly influences the system's aeroelastic characteristics.