Tailoring the panel inertial and elastic forces for the flutter and stability characteristics enhancement using copper patches

Abstract

This paper studies the effect of tailoring the inertial and elastic forces on the flutter and the stability characteristics of the aircraft panels using copper patches that are placed at effective locations. The proposed panel is modeled as a multilayer thin composite panel. The equations of panel motion are derived based on Hamilton’s principle. The first-order piston theory is used to calculate the aerodynamic loading. The Bogner Fox-Schmit rectangular plate element is considered in the formulation of the finite element equations. The modal transformation based on the most dominant modes is applied. The validation and consistency studies are conducted using the COMSOL Multiphysics commercial code and some previous analytical and experimental studies. The critical aerodynamic pressures of the tailored panels and the pristine ones are calculated using the eigenvalues and the values of the damping ratios. The effective placement of the copper patches is determined using extensive search methods that are constrained with the weight necessities and the recommended searching focuses. The results highlight the significant effect of the proposed method as the critical aerodynamic pressure of the copper-hosted panel has increased by 120.9%, which corresponds to a maximum increase in weight of 20.8%.