AS5970 STRUCTURAL DYNAMICS AND AEROELASTICITY (Jan-May 2013)

ASSIGNMENT TITLE : FLUTTER SPEED DETERMINATION USING P METHOD

Submitted by
NAME: S VIJAY KISHORE
DEPARTMENT: AEROSPACE ENGINEERING
DEGREE: M Tech
REG.NO AE12M019







FLUTTER SPEED DETERMINATION USING P-METHOD
Consider a typical airfoil section where the linear spring provides the plunge displacement
and torsional spring provides the twist (torsional stiffness) as shown in the figure below.
The reference point would represent elastic axis. P, C, Q, T represents reference point,
Centre of mass, aerodynamic center and three-quarter chord respectively. The
dimensionless parameter e and a represents determine the location of C and P.The chord
offset of center of mass from the reference point is made dimensionless by airfoil semi-
chord b and denoted by

.The Langrangeans equation is used to find the kinetic

energy and the potential energy.
In this method the following assumptions are made
1. The flow is steady.
2. A simple aerodynamic theory (thin airfoil theory) is used to express the lift and moment
expression.

where

where

The langrangean is given by

) (

The generalized coordinates are h and
On solving we obtain a two system of equations
(

( )
Lift is given by

( )

( )
The governing equation for the flutter using steady flow theory in matrix form is given by
2
q h
2 2
q p q
m mbx K 0
h h 0 0 2U bq h
+ + =
mbx I 0 K
q q 0 0 -2U b (0.5+a) q
( ( ( ( ( ( (
( ( ( ( ( ( (


We assume the solution of the equation in exponential form

On substitution we get
( )
2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2
h
2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2
p p
h
mb s +mb mb s x +2b U 0
=
b
mb s x I s +I -2 0.5+a b U 0

(
(
(
(
(
(
(
(

(


Now we define non-dimensional parameters

- Mass ratio
- Ratio of uncoupled bending to torsional frequencies
r - Radius of gyration
V - Dimensionless free stream speed of air also known as reduced
velocity
On further simplification

( )
2
2 2 2

2
2 2 2 2

V
s + s x +2
h

0
=
b
0
V
s x s r +r -2 0.5+a

(
| |
( ( |
(
\ .
( (
(
( (
| |

( (

|
(
\ .


For non-trivial solution to exist, the determinant of the matrix is made zero
The roots of the determinant are complex conjugates

Limitations of p-method
The unsteady effects were completely neglected and lift and moment equations were
obtained from simple aerodynamic theory.

Matlab code
The flutter determinant is solved using a MATLAB code to find the flutter speeds.
.The real and imaginary roots of the solution of the determinant are plotted versus reduced
speed. The negative of real part of root () corresponds to modal damping and the
imaginary part () corresponds to modal frequency. The various non-dimensional
parameters are changed and the flutter speed variation is studied.
Baseline system of parameters considered is as follows
[1]

a = -0.2 e = -0.1
= 20 = 0.4
r
2
= 0.24
The mass ratio, ratio of plunge frequency to pitch frequency and radius of gyration is varied
independently and the corresponding nature of variation of flutter speed is studied.

1.Effect of change of mass ratio
For a constant , x and r
2
(square of radius of gyration) as the mass ratio() is
varied between 20 to 100 corresponding to density variation from sea level to 10000 ft the
flutter speed also increases.
Table 1.1 Flutter speeds for different mass ratios
(mass ratio) Flutter speed
20 1.9
40 2.7
60 3.2
80 3.7
100 4.2

Fig 1.1 Plot of flutter speed versus mass ratios

0
1
2
3
4
5
0 20 40 60 80 100 120
f
l
u
t
t
e
r

s
p
e
e
d


Fig.1.2 Plot of imaginary part and real part of root versus Reduced speed for =20

Fig1.3 Plot of imaginary and real part of roots versus Reduced speed for =40


Fig 1.4 Plot of imaginary and real part versus the reduced speed for =60


Fig 1.5 Plot of imaginary and real roots versus Reduced speed for =80


Fig 1.6 Plot of imaginary and real roots versus Reduced speed for =100


2.Effect of change of
For a constant mass ratio , x and r
2
(square of radius of gyration) as the ratio of
plunge to pitch frequency() is varied from 0.2 to 0.8 the flutter speed decreases.

Table 2.1 Flutter speed at different
Flutter speed at =20 Flutter speed at =40 Flutter speed at =60
0.2 2.2 3.1 3.8
0.4 1.9 2.7 3.2
0.6 1.5 2.1 2.6
0.8 1.1 1.6 1.9








Fig 2.1 Plot of reduced speed versus




Fig. 2.1 plot of imaginary and real part versus reduced speed at =0.2







0
0.5
1
1.5
2
2.5
3
3.5
4
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1
R
e
d
u
c
e
d

s
p
e
e
d


mu=20
mu=40
mu=60
Fig 2.2 Plot of imaginary and real part of roots versus reduced speed at =0.4


Fig 2.3 Plot of imaginary and real parts of roots versus Reduced speed at =0.6





Fig. 2.4 Plot of imaginary and real part of roots versus reduced speed at =0.8


3.Effect of change of r(radius of gyration)
For a constant mass ratio , and x
.
as the radius of gyration is varied from 0.24 to
0.36 the flutter speed increases .Flutter speed also increases with increase in mass ratios
corresponding to constant radius of gyration.



















r^2 mu=20 mu=40 mu=60
0.24 1.9 2.6 3.2
0.28 2 2.9 3.5
0.32 2.2 3 3.7
0.36 2.3 3.2 3.9
Fig 3.1 Plot of Flutter speed versus square of radius of gyration (r
2
)








Results
1. As the mass ratio was varied from 20 to 100 the flutter speed increased.
2. As the ratio of plunge to pitch frequency is varied 0.2 to 0.8 the flutter speed
decreased.
3. As the radius of gyration (square) varied from 0.24 to 0.36 the flutter speed
decreased.





0
0.5
1
1.5
2
2.5
3
3.5
4
4.5
0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4
F
l
u
t
t
e
r

s
p
e
e
d

Radius of gyration(r
2
)
mu=20
mu=40
mu=60


APPENDIX
Matlab code for determining flutter speed using p-method
clear all;
clc;
clf;
% mu is mass ratio
mu=20;
% R is square of radius of gyration
R=0.24;
e=-0.1;
a=-0.2;
%x_theta is offset distance between reference point and center of mass
x_theta=e-a;
% ratio of pitch frequency to plunge frequency
sigma=0.4;
%semi chord
b=1;
% V is reduced speed
V_start=0;
V_inc=0.1;
V_end=3;
% Flutter determinant
syms s;
icount=0;
for V=V_start:V_inc:V_end
icount=icount+1;
f11=s^2 + sigma^2;
f12=s^2*x_theta+2*(V^2)/mu;
f21=s^2*x_theta;
f22=s^2*R+R-(2*V^2/mu)*(0.5+a);
FD=[f11 f12;f21 f22];
W=det(FD);
roots=solve(W);
for jj = 1:4
im(jj,icount) = imag(roots(jj));
re(jj,icount) = real(roots(jj));
end
vel(icount)=V;
end
subplot(2,1,1);
plot(vel,abs(im(2:3,1:end)),'k');
title('Imaginary part Vs Non-dimensional velocity(Reduced speed)');
xlabel('V(Reduced speed)');
ylabel('Imaginary part');grid
subplot(2,1,2);
plot(vel,re,'r');
title('Real part Vs Non-dimensional velocity(Reduced speed)');
xlabel('V(Reduced speed)');
ylabel('Real part');grid