Aeroelastic and sloshing stability of slender hypersonic vehicle

Abstract

This paper focuses on the problem of the coupling between the rigid body mode and elastic mode caused by the light structure design and slender geometry of the hypersonic vehicle, and the influence of the liquid sloshing on the aircraft. In order to analyze the complex dynamics of hypersonic vehicle, the nonlinear dynamic model of a flexible vehicle is established in the case of the vehicle’s elastic deformation. The yields terms that produce nonlinear coupling between the elastic deflections, liquid sloshing and the rigid-body motion parameters are obtained by Lagrangian approach. Then, the equations are reduced to a linear set for stability analysis. Finally, some numerical simulations are given that reveal a destabilizing influence of elastic deflections and liquid sloshing at stability for a particular vehicle configuration.