Linear Piston Theory Research Articles

Free vibration and supersonic flutter analyses of a sandwich cylindrical shell with CNT-reinforced honeycomb core integrated with piezoelectric layers

In this research, the free vibration and supersonic flutter analyses of a cylindrical sandwich shell with a reinforced honeycomb core (RHC) integrated with piezoelectric face sheets are investigated. The core is a honeycomb structure enriched with fibers and carbon nanotubes (CNTs). The layers of the shell are modeled based on the Cooper-Naghdi shell theory and the continuity conditions between the layers are considered. The aerodynamic pressure of the supersonic flow is modeled using the linear piston theory. Hamilton’s principle is used to derive the governing equations. A semi-analytical solution is presented including an exact solution in the circumferential direction followed by a numerical solution in the longitudinal direction via the differential quadrature method (DQM). The effects of several parameters on the frequencies, the corresponding damping coefficients, and the critical aerodynamic pressure are investigated. It is concluded that improving the stiffness of the honeycomb core with the CNTs does not necessarily improve the aeroelastic stability of the shell. The presented results can be used in the design and analysis of aerospace structures.

Isogeometric Flutter Analysis of a Heated Laminated Plate with and without Cutout

Understanding the flutter characteristics of heated laminated plates, both with and without cutout, is crucial. This study presents the first exploration of flutter analysis in a thermal environment for a laminated plate featuring a cutout. To facilitate this study, the motion equations of the heated laminated plate with a cutout are derived using the first-order shear deformation theory (FSDT), incorporating a nonlinear term. Employing the isogeometric method combined with multi-path coupling technology, we establish accurate geometric and solution domains for the laminated plate. The effects of the thermal stresses and the aerodynamics calculated by the linear piston theory are considered. The accuracy and effectiveness of the proposed model are validated through several comparisons with ANSYS results and existing solutions. Additionally, the study examines the impact of key parameters on flutter characteristics, including thermal conditions, number of layers, lay-up angles, inflow angles, and cutout dimensions. The insights gained from this research will serve as a valuable benchmark for future analyses and design concerning flutter characteristics.

Dynamically Linearized Time-Domain Approach for Limit-Cycle Oscillation Prediction for an Elastic Panel

A nonlinear aeroelastic model for a flexible panel is extended to consider the Euler equation as the aerodynamic model. A highly efficient method is presented to compute the generalized aerodynamic forces from a CFD simulation, and the results are compared to those results previously obtained using full potential flow aerodynamics and the linear piston theory. The flutter onset condition as well as limit cycle oscillation amplitudes are computed for a range of supersonic Mach numbers. Additionally, the effects of a shock wave and a viscous boundary layer (Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes) are considered in the computational fluid dynamics simulation and are implemented in the aeroelastic model via the generalized aerodynamic force obtained by the new approach. Conclusions are made based on the use and application of this more complete aerodynamic theory, including cases with shock impingement and near-transonic Mach numbers.

Nonlinear aero-thermo-elastic flutter analysis of stiffened graphene platelets reinforced metal foams plates with initial geometric imperfection

Due to its lightweight design and high load-bearing capacity, the stiffened plate structure is extensively applied in the passive control of aircraft flutter. However, the evolution mechanism of the nonlinear response of stiffened plates within the unstable region remains unclear. In particular, there is a lack of research on the nonlinear aero-thermo-elastic properties of stiffened plates with initial geometric imperfection. Inspired by this, this article investigates the stability and post-instability behavior of stiffened geometrical imperfect graphene platelets reinforced metal foams (GPLRMF) plates under combined thermal load and aerodynamic pressure. Graphene platelets (GPLs) and foam are distributed evenly or unevenly in the plates, while the material properties are calculated by modified Halpin-Tsai model and rule of mixture. Considering initial geometric imperfection, the models of plates and stiffeners are established by first-order shear deformation (FOSD) plate and Timoshenko beam theories, respectively. Using the linear piston theory to simulate supersonic aerodynamic pressure. The stability boundary of stiffened plates is determined by eigenvalue analysis. The Newton-Raphson approach is used to simulate the aero-thermo-elastic static response of stiffened plates, and the dynamic post-flutter behavior of the stiffened plate is determined through the Runge-Kutta method. Finally, the effects of initial geometric imperfection, material parameters (foam distribution type, porosity coefficient, GPLs weight fraction and GPLs distribution type), and stiffeners (size, position, and stiffening scheme) on the thermal aeroelastic behavior of stiffened GPLRMF plates are revealed. It can be found that the presence of initial geometric imperfection will significantly change the nonlinear flutter behavior of the stiffened plates.

Нелинейный флаттер переходного процесса наследственно-деформируемых систем при сверхзвуковом режиме полета

In this paper, the problem of nonlinear flutter of a transient process of a hereditarily deformable wing of an aircraft moving at supersonic speed is considered. The aim of the work is to study the flutter problem for plate elements of aircraft in a gas flow under loads caused by atmospheric turbulence. Aerodynamic effects are specified according to the linearized piston theory. Nonlinear wing oscillations are described by a system of nonlinear integro-differential equations. They are solved numerically by the method proposed by F. Badalov, which is based on the Bubnov–Galerkin method, finite difference method, and power series. Free vibration is analyzed under conditions of ideal elasticity with account for a hereditarily deformable thin wing. The displacements of characteristic points of the wing under flutter conditions are comparatively assessed. It is established that aerodynamic nonlinearity has little impact on the critical speed, but with an increase in the Mach number, this impact increases. The mechanical effect of a significant dependence of the critical flutter speed on the relaxation kernel amplitude and Poisson's ratio is revealed.

Panel Flutter Numerical Study of Thin Isotropic Flat Plates and Curved Plates with Various Edge Boundary Conditions

In this article, supersonic panel flutter analysis of flat plates and curved plates with different edge boundary conditions are studied, using efficient, high precision triangular shallow shell finite elements. The fluid on the underside of the plate was is assumed to be stationary. The linear piston theory can be applied to the top surface of the plate. The linear piston theory was used to evaluate the aerodynamic loads. The solution of a complex eigenvalue problem was formulated according to Hamilton’s principle. Lagrange’s equation of motion was obtained using standard methods for finding eigenvalues. Current finite element analysis ignores aerodynamic damping. For panels, the theory of thin and small deformed shells was taken into account. To validate the developed finite element code, the results of a square and rectangular flat-panels with simply supported edges (S-S-S-S), a square plate with four fixed edges (C-C-C-C), and a square plate with the length side clamps (C-S-C-S) were compared with the published data. The flutter results of other edge boundary conditions (S-C-S-C, C-S-C-S, and C-C-C-C) for square and rectangular flat panels are evaluated for which literature data is limited. It has been found that the fixed condition in the cross-flow direction (S-C-S-C) has a significant effect on the critical flutter pressure parameters and flutter frequencies. Further, to study the aforementioned effect, the current finite element (FE) has been extended to curved plates with S-C-S-C(constrained in the cross-flow direction and exposed to supersonic flow), SS-S-S boundary conditions to find flutter results.

Flutter and Limit-Cycle Oscillations of a Panel Using Unsteady Potential Flow Aerodynamics

The potential aerodynamic theory is implemented to model the flow over a flexible panel. The present study compares the more complete unsteady version of the potential flow theory with its simplification known as the linear piston theory for different Mach numbers and the two- and three-dimensional aerodynamic models. The piston theory is “local” in space and time because it assumes the pressure at a spatial point and time only depends on the panel deformation at the same point and time. The full potential flow model includes the effect of the past history of the panel deformation and the spatial distribution of the panel deformation on the pressure at any instant in time and at any point in space. Aeroelastic analysis is made to trace the flutter onset critical condition based on the limit cycle oscillation amplitudes, and the results are compared with the more traditional implementation using piston theory. Conclusions are made based on the use and application of this more complete aerodynamic theory, particularly for near-transonic and hypersonic flow regimes. Subsonic results are also presented in this study.

Correlation of supersonic wind tunnel measurements with a nonlinear aeroelastic theoretical/computational model of a thin plate

Supersonic wind tunnel test data is compared with a nonlinear aeroelastic computational model, considering a freestream flow with Mach nearly 2, coupled cavity, and no-shock impingement. The measurements include Limit Cycle Oscillations (LCO) for the given set of flow and structural parameters. The effect of a static pressure differential, temperature differential, and the type of LCO is also studied: periodic or chaotic. A fully coupled aero-thermal–acoustic–elastic analysis was carried out, where the strong dependency of the dynamic instability upon the in-plane boundary stiffness was discovered. Associated with aerodynamic and acoustic formulations, the nonlinearities from the structure are found to be the strongest factor determining the occurrence and character of LCO. At the same time, the cavity effect was found to be negligible for this experimental configuration. Additionally, a comparison analysis was performed on the aerodynamic model for this flow condition between the Linear Piston Theory and the Full Potential Aerodynamics. The calculation of the critical flutter boundary was also performed in terms of the static pressure differential between the cavity pressure and the panel surface pressure, presenting regions where the panel is in static deformation due to the pressure differential versus LCO response. The comparison with the analytical model showed good agreement with the measured data, achieving a similar panel displacement at three-quarters of the panel length as well as the expected behavior of periodicity or chaos for specific values of temperature and static pressure differential.

Aerothermoelastic Analysis of Conical Shell in Supersonic Flow

The aerothermoelastic behavior of a conical shell in supersonic flow is studied in the paper. According to Love’s first approximation shell theory, the kinetic energy and strain energy of the conical shell are expressed and the aerodynamic model is established by using the linear piston theory with a curvature correction term. By taking the characteristic orthogonal polynomial series as the admissible functions, the mode function of conical shell under different boundary conditions can be obtained using the Rayleigh–Ritz method. Then, the dynamic model of the conical shell is derived by using the Lagrange equation. Based on the model, variations in the natural frequencies with respect to temperature and free-stream static pressure are analyzed. Additionally, the effects of the length-to-radius ratio, the thickness-to-radius ratio, and semi-vertex angle, as well as the thermal and aerodynamic loads on the aerothermoelastic stability of the structure are investigated in detail.

Forced vibrations of hereditary deformable shell elements of aircraft structures in gas flow under influence of atmospheric turbulence

The problem of vibrations of thin, hereditarily deformable shell elements moving in a gas under the action of atmospheric turbulence is considered. The work aims to study the flutter phenomenon of aircraft elements in a gas flow under the action of loads caused by atmospheric turbulence. Assuming that the relationship between stresses and strains for the shell material is linear-hereditary, a thin shell is used, which obeys the Kirchhoff-Love hypothesis. The aerodynamic force is written according to the linearized piston theory. A system of nonlinear integro-differential equations in partial derivatives is obtained to describe nonlinear oscillations of a thin isotropic viscoelastic shell. The system of nonlinear integro-differential equations is solved numerically by the method proposed by F. Badalov, which is based on the Bubnov-Galerkin methods, finite differences, and power series. When using an exponential kernel, the flutter rate increases to approximately 1.5%. Therefore, when using an exponential kernel, the flutter velocity of a viscoelastic shell practically coincides with the critical flutter velocity for ideally elastic plates. It was also found that the critical flutter velocity increases with an increase in the number of pinched sides of the shell.

Effect of variable thickness on the aeroelastic stability boundaries of truncated conical shells

The flutter characteristics of a truncated conical shell with variable thickness exposed to a supersonic fluid flow are studied in this study. The first-order shear deformation theory (FSDT) is employed to model the shell and the linear piston theory is utilized to evaluate the aerodynamic pressure. The boundary conditions and governing equations are formulated based on Hamilton’s principle. An exact solution is presented in the circumferential direction and the differential quadrature method (DQM) is hired to present an approximate solution in the meridional direction. A general two-parameter power-law equation is considered for thickness variation in the meridional direction and the effects of these coefficients on the flutter boundaries are examined. It is observed that utilizing the conical shells with uniform thickness is not an optimum design and to improve the aeroelastic stability of the conical shells it is better to increase the thickness of the shell from the small radius of the shell to the large one. As the novelty of the presented work, it can be claimed that it is the first attempt to examine the flutter characteristics of conical shells of nonuniform thickness and the results can be utilized to provide optimum designs for aerovehicles.

The Supersonic Flutter Behavior of Sandwich Plates with an Magnetorheological Elastomer Core and Gnp-Reinforced Face Sheets

This paper is provided to study the supersonic flutter behavior of sandwich plates with a magnetorheological (MR) core and polymeric face sheets reinforced with graphene nanoplatelets (GNPs). The mathematical modelings of the plate and the aerodynamic pressure of the fluid flow are performed utilizing the first-order shear deformation theory (FSDT) and the linear piston theory, respectively. The effective mechanical properties of the face sheets are estimated utilizing the rule of mixture along with the Halpin–Tsai model. Hamilton’s principle is employed to derive the governing equations and associated boundary conditions and these equations are solved using a semi-analytical approach for a Levy-type plate. The influences of different parameters on the aeroelastic stability of the plate are investigated such as the thickness of the MR core, magnetic field intensity, distribution pattern and mass fraction of the GNPs, boundary conditions, and geometrical parameters of the plate. This paper is the first theoretical attempt to study the effects of MR materials on the aeroelastic stability of Levy-type moderately thick sandwich plates and presents useful results that will be useful in the future of air vehicles.

Variable-kinematic finite elements for the aero-thermo-elastic analysis of variable stiffness composite laminates

This paper explores the aero-thermo-elastic properties of variable stiffness composite laminates (VSCLs) with fibers steered along curved trajectories using a refined 1 D model. High-order solutions are generated by the p-version finite element method in conjunction with the Carrera Unified Formulation (CUF), which is applied to structural modeling by employing the improved hierarchical Legendre expansion (IHLE) in particular. The merit of using such a kind of expansion lies in that both the Equivalent Single Layer (ESL) and Layer-Wise (LW) theories can be formulated in a compact and straightforward manner. The linear piston theory is utilized to model the aerodynamic force, whereas the steady-state temperature field is applied during the flutter analysis. The weak-form governing equations are derived by taking a perturbation of the equilibrium configuration, and divergence and flutter instabilities are determined by solving the related eigenvalue problem. The accuracy of the proposed model has been verified through several test cases involving flutter, thermal buckling, and vibration of symmetric and antisymmetric VSCLs. The obtained results were compared to those obtained using the ABAQUS software and the available literature. Finally, the effect of the kinematic order, shear coefficient, and temperature variation on the critical dynamic pressure of VSCLs is thoroughly investigated.

Nonlinear flutter analysis of functionally graded carbon

In this paper, geometrical nonlinear flutter analysis of functionally graded carbon nanotube-reinforced composite plates is presented. The governing equations of the system are obtained using the Mindlin plate theory and von Karman geometric nonlinearity. The linear piston theory is utilized to determine the aerodynamic pressure. Applying the Hamilton principle, equations of motion of a system are derived in the matrix form, and then the finite element method is used to obtain the discretized equations. Application of Newmark’s time integration and Newton–Raphson method are used to solve the nonlinear oscillation equations for determining the nonlinear flutter response and critical flow velocity. To check the validity of the present formulation, numerical results are compared with the previous data in the literature. The effects of stiffeners, type carbon nanotube (CNT) and angle of attack of airflow, thickness (ratio h/a) of the plate on critical airflow velocity and nonlinear dynamic response of the SFG-CNTRC plates are studied.

Supersonic flutter behavior of a polymeric truncated conical shell reinforced with agglomerated CNTs

ABSTRACT This study investigates the aeroelastic stability behavior (flutter analysis) of polymeric truncated conical shells reinforced with agglomerated carbon nanotubes (CNTs) under supersonic fluid flow. The first-order shear deformation theory (FSDT) is used to examine the mathematical model of the shell, while the linear piston theory is employed to estimate the aerodynamic pressure. The effective mechanical properties are computed utilizing the Eshelby–Mori–Tanaka scheme and the rule of mixture. The governing equations are derived using Hamilton’s principle and a numerical solution is presented for the governing equations via the differential quadrature method (DQM). A parametric study is provided to investigate the influences of the agglomeration parameters, distribution pattern, mass fraction, and chirality of the CNTs on the flutter boundaries. The utilization of the presented results allows a comprehensive design for conical shells under extreme conditions that can be critical in certain applications that use these advanced materials.

An investigation of aero-thermo-elastic flutter and divergence of functionally graded porous skew plates

Aero-thermo-elastic flutter and divergence analyses of functionally graded (FG) porous skew plates subjected to supersonic airflow are investigated in this study. The material properties of skew plates vary across the thickness based on the modified power-law model. Three types of thermal loading as constant, linear and nonlinear temperature distributions in the thickness direction of the plate are considered. Applying the Hamilton’s principle, the coupled partial differential equations of motion and the associated boundary conditions based on the first-order shear deformation theory and linear piston theory are derived in the Cartesian coordinates. Also, the principle of minimum total potential energy and adjacent equilibrium criterion are used to obtain the stability equations. Using a mapping, the partial differential equations of motion and stability equations are converted from Cartesian coordinate system to a skew coordinate. The partial differential equations in the skew coordinate are discretized by generalized differential quadrature method (GDQM) and solved using the state space method. Consequently, the effects of geometrical, mechanical and thermal parameters such as thermal loading types, angle of skew, power-law index, porosity, and boundary conditions on the flutter and divergence boundaries of skew plate are studied in detail.

Explicit finite element method for nonlinear flutter analysis of composite panels

This work presents an efficient explicit finite element model for predicting the nonlinear aeroelastic behavior of composite panels in the supersonic regime. The first-order shear deformation plate theory in conjunction with the von Kármán nonlinear strains is used for structural modeling and the linear piston theory is used to model the aerodynamic loads. In order to reduce the computational cost of the simulations, a lumping procedure is employed in the mass and aerodynamic damping matrices of the finite element model. No modal reduction is performed and the central difference method is used for the numerical direct integration in time of the nonlinear equations. The model is verified using results from the literature and it is demonstrated that the lumping procedure drastically reduces the computational cost of the simulations.

Finite element model to investigate the dynamic instability of rectangular plates subjected to supersonic airflow

In this paper, a numerical method is presented to study the dynamic behaviour of an isotropic rectangular plate subjected to aerodynamic loads induced by parallel supersonic airflow. A finite element model, based on bi-dimensional polynomial displacement functions and linear Piston theory, is used to study the dynamic behaviour of the solid plate coupled with aerodynamic loads. The developed approach is able to model flat plates and shallow shells in which the fluid–structure coupling at the interface is applied synchronously using a monolithic method. The solid model is based on Sanders’ shell theory. The stiffness and damping matrices that result from application of the aerodynamic load are coupled with those obtained from a structural model and are calculated using analytical integration. By assembling the matrices, the global mass, damping and stiffness matrices for the plate are obtained and then dynamic equations of the governing problem are derived. The eigenvalues of the system are calculated using the equation reduction technique. The critical non-dimensional aerodynamic pressure of the airflow that induces flutter of the structure is determined for various boundary conditions and geometries. The obtained results are compared with other published research works and very good agreement is observed.

Linear aeroelastic analysis of cantilever hybrid composite laminated plates with curvilinear fibres and carbon nanotubes

In this paper, cantilever laminated composite plates, subjected to supersonic airflow, are studied in the linear elastic regime. The considered material is a multiscale three-phase composite, constituted by epoxy resin reinforced with multi-walled carbon nanotubes and curvilinear carbon fibres. The orientation of the fibres is defined using three different functions. A model based on a third-order shear deformation theory and a p-version finite element is applied. Furthermore, a hierarchical approach is applied to characterise the mechanical properties of the composite material. A combination of adequate micromechanics based models, including a modified version of the Halpin-Tsai model, the Rule of Mixtures, a unit cell-based model, and the Chamis model, is implemented. The aeroelastic analysis is performed considering the linear piston theory to evaluate flutter (dynamic instability) and divergence (static instability) in such structures. The improvements achieved through the combination of carbon nanotubes and curvilinear fibres on the instabilities are explored.

Nonlinear flutter of tapered and skewed cantilevered plates with curvilinear fiber paths

Aeroelastic stability of tapered/skew variable stiffness composite cantilevered plates are considered in the current study at flutter and post-flutter regions. The variable stiffness behavior is obtained by altering the fiber angles continuously according to a selected curvilinear fiber path function in the composite laminates. Flutter speed, limit cycle oscillations (LCOs), and bifurcation diagrams of tapered/skewed plates are obtained at two different fiber path functions. Nonlinear structural model is utilized based on the virtual work principle. Fully nonlinear Green’s kinematic strain relations are used to account for the geometric nonlinearities and the first order shear deformation theory (FSDT) is employed to generalize the formulation for the case of moderately thick plates including transverse shear effects. One prominent target of the present study is to determine how the variable stiffness parameters affect the nonlinear behavior. Consequently, one may find the best fiber path with improved flutter and post-flutter characteristics for tapered/skew plates in supersonic flow. First order linear piston theory is used to model the aerodynamic loading. In order to get a reliable solution, the Generalized Differential Quadrature (GDQ) method is employed. Moreover, time integration of the equations of motion is carried out using the Newmark’s average acceleration technique. It will be shown that taperness/skewness as well as variable stiffness lamination parameters have significant effects on the aeroelastic stability margins. In addition, the post-critical behavior is found to be periodic or quasi-periodic at all the presented simulations with no specific route to chaos.