Uncertainty analysis near bifurcation of an aeroelastic system

Abstract

Variations in structural and aerodynamic nonlinearities on the dynamic behavior of an aeroelastic system are investigated. The aeroelastic system consists of a rigid airfoil that is supported by nonlinear springs in the pitch and plunge directions and subjected to nonlinear aerodynamic loads. We follow two approaches to determine the effects of variations in the linear and nonlinear plunge and pitch stiffness coefficients of this aeroelastic system on its stability near the bifurcation. The first approach is based on implementation of intrusive polynomial chaos expansion (PCE) on the governing equations, yielding a set of nonlinear coupled ordinary differential equations that are numerically solved. The results show that this approach is capable of determining sensitivity of the flutter speed to variations in the linear pitch stiffness coefficient. On the other hand, it fails to predict changes in the type of the instability associated with randomness in the cubic stiffness coefficient. In the second approach, the normal form is used to investigate the flutter (Hopf bifurcation) boundary that occurs as the freestream velocity is increased and to analytically predict the amplitude and frequency of the ensuing LCO. The results show that this mathematical approach provides detailed aspects of the effects of the different system nonlinearities on its dynamic behavior. Furthermore, this approach could be effectively used to perform sensitivity analysis of the system's response to variations in its parameters.