Experimental investigation of linear and nonlinear aeroelastic behavior of a cropped delta wing with store in low subsonic flow

Abstract

The present paper aims to investigate flutter phenomenon for cropped delta wing with an external store using numerical and experimental methods in a subsonic and incompressible flight regime. Wing structure is modeled based on von Karman plate theory. The unsteady vortex lattice method is applied to wing aerodynamic model and a slender-body theory is used for store aerodynamic model. The experimental tests have been conducted in an incompressible subsonic wind tunnel. The comparison indicates a satisfactory agreement between the experimental results and the theoretical analyses. Moreover, the effects of different parameters such as wing thickness, wing aspect ratio, spanwise store position, store mass, the aerodynamics of the store, underwing clearance and store center of gravity on both flutter speed and instability boundary of the wing are studied both analytically and experimentally. Also, the system behaviors and the oscillation amplitude are examined experimentally for post-flutter where time history simulation and phase portrait are obtained for various velocities. The FFT analysis of time history measured data shows that beside the dominant harmonic frequency, both superharmonic and subharmonic frequencies are clearly identifiable. The results obtained from experimental bifurcation diagram indicate the presence of hysteresis loop regions corresponding to the stable LCOs.