Effects of Shock Location on Aeroelastic Stability of Flexible Panel

Abstract

Focusing on the aeroelastic stability of heated flexible panel in shock-dominated flows with arbitrary shock impingement location condition, a systematic theoretical analysis model is established. The von-Karman large deflection theory is used to account for the geometrical nonlinearity. Local first-order piston theory is employed in the region before and after shock to estimate the aerodynamic pressure. The results show that the shock impingement location has a significant effect on the stability of the flexible panel. The change of the critical dynamic pressure (for which flutter onset occurs) is not a monotonic function of the shock impingement point from one endpoint to the other. Specifically, the nondimensional critical flutter dynamic pressure increases as the shock impingement points move from the left to the right in the middle region, and the value of the critical flutter dynamic pressure varies substantially as the shock is located near the boundary of the panel. The variation is larger for higher shock strength. For a large shock strength, panel can buckle (or diverge) rather than only flutter even without thermal stresses. The sensitivity of the panel dynamics to the shock impingement location may have interesting implications for the case of a moving incident shock.