Effects of Number of Stores on the Transonic Flutter Characteristics of a Delta Wing Configuration

Abstract

Transonic and supersonic flutter characteristics of a delta wing configuration with external stores are simulated using the fluid/structure coupling method and the effect of the store aerodynamics is investigated. A delta wing with one and two external stores are considered in this study. The stores are located in the rearward of the wing simulating typical high speed aircraft configurations. The computational result shows that the flutter dynamic pressures over all the Mach numbers are reduced by adding external stores for both cases. In addition, the flutter dynamic pressures become much lower when the number of attached external stores is increased. In the case of the single external store, influence of the store aerodynamics can be divided into two regions according to the Mach number. It is found that neglecting the store aerodynamics leads to the overestimation of the flutter dynamic pressures in the supersonic region. In case of two external stores, the store aerodynamics influence on the flutter boundary only at M∞ =1 .22 unlike the case of the single external store. It is shown that the shock wave ahead of the external store influences on the pressure distributions on the lower surface and the location of the shock wave is important for the decision of the flutter boundary.