Nonlinear stall flutter and divergence analysis of cantilevered graphite/epoxy wings

The nonlinear, stalled, aeroelastic behavior of rectangular, graphite/epoxy, cantilevered wings with varying amount of bending-torsi on stiffness coupling is investigated. A nonlinear aeroelastic analysis is developed using the nonlinear, stalled ONERA aerodynamic model initially presented by Tran and Petot. Nonlinear flutter calculations are carried out using Fourier analysis to extract the harmonics from the ONERA aerodynamics, then a harmonic balance method and a Newton-Raphson solver are applied to the resulting nonlinear, Rayleigh-Ritz aeroelastic formulation. Test wings were constructed and subjected to wind-tunnel tests for comparison against the developed analysis. Wind-tunnel tests show reasonable agreement between theory and experiment for static deflections, for linear flutter and divergence, and for nonlinear, torsional stall flutter and bending stall flutter limit cycles. The current nonlinear analysis shows a transition from divergence to bending stall flutter, which linear analyses are unable to predict.