EAS 3406

AEROELASTIC
BY
DR. MOHAMMAD YAZDI HARMIN

ASSIGNMENT 2:
FLUTTER

NAME

NO. MATRIC :

ONG THIAM CHUN

158347

DISCUSSION
a) This aeroelastic calculation assumes that the unsteady aerodynamic damping is constant. In
order to take account of structural damping in flutter analysis, one needs to obtain Rayleigh
coefficients. Due to complexity in finding Rayleigh coefficient, the structural damping is also
neglected. Based on Introduction to Aircraft Aeroelasticity and Loads by Jan R. Wright,
the inclusion of structural damping actually has small effect on delaying flutter speed.

Figure 1: Vf and Vg plots against Air Speed (m/s)

Critical flutter speed takes place where one of the modes has negative damping ratio. As the
airspeed increases, the frequencies begin to converge. One of the modes has increasing damping
ratio, as a contrast to this phenomena, another mode shows decreasing damping ratio which
eventually become negative at around 111.6m/s. The frequency does not coalesce when flutter
happens. This damping ratio decrement happens at a shallow gradient, so we called the flutter as
a soft flutter.

b)

Figure 2: Effect of changes in flexural axis on flutter speed

The mass axis is fixed while flexural axis is varying. Notice that even the flexural axis and mass
axis are coincide at mid-chord, flutter is still taking place. When flexural axis is located at midchord, there is no inertial coupling. However, the two mode shapes are coupled when flexural
axis is no longer located at mid-chord. From Figure 2, the flutter speed decreases as the flexural
axis is moving further away from leading edge. An increment of flexural axis also indicates the
increases in eccentricity between flexural axis and aerodynamic centre. This phenomenon can be
explained based on moment of the wing. As the eccentricity increases, lift forces at aerodynamic
centre will create a greater moment effect as the moment arm (eccentricity) of lift force to
flexural axis is longer. This moment may push the leading edge upwards, lead to higher effective
angle of attack, and this is where the degradation on flutter speeds performance started with the
increasing distance of flexural axis and leading charge.

c)

Figure 3: Effect of flap stiffness on flutter speed

Figure 4: Effect of pitch stiffness on flutter speed

Generally, Figure 3 shows that flutter speed decreases along with the increases in flap stiffness
and have a sudden increase again at 4.6 x 107 Nm/rad of flap stiffness. On the other hand, the
increment in pitch stiffness improves its flutter speed except in the lower pitch stiffness (rapid
increase with a sharp drop), which is opposite to that in increment of flap stiffness. The result
may indicate that the changes in flap and pitch stiffness does not necessary improve dynamic
aeroelasticity performance in the same trend (example: increases in pitch stiffness or decreases in
flap stiffness improve dynamic aeroelasticity performance), there is uncertainty shown in Figure
3 and Figure 4. One may conclude that this theoretical analysis serves as reference for suitable
flap and pitch stiffness to improve dynamic aeroelasticity performance in this particular wing
configuration and altitude. The limits of increment in pitch stiffness and decrement in flap
stiffness should be noticed to avoid degradation in performance. More studies should be done to
investigate the factors for such inconsistency in the result shown in Figure 3 and Figure 4.

d)

Figure 5: Vf plot

Figure 6: Vg plot

Figure 7: Output of the calculation

In frequency matching k-method, the stable region is where the damping coefficient, g are
negative and the system becomes unstable when g become positive. With the same configuration
in a), the k-method analysis yields a slightly higher flutter speed than that in a). This is due to the
inclusion of unsteady reduced frequency effects. The unsteady aerodynamic damping term,

is assumed as constant in the analysis in part a) at different air speed. However, the aerodynamic
stiffness and damping matrices are reduced frequency-dependent. The frequency dependency of

is given by the equation below:

Frequency Matching k-method seems to show a more realistic result than the method using in
part a) because it includes the unsteady aerodynamic condition and reduced frequency. If an
aircraft is analysed based on steady condition or neglecting some unsteady terms, the aircraft
may perform well below the actual capable performance. Steady state analysis is much simpler
and quicker within safety margin of aircraft performance but come with a cost of unrealistic and
degrading the actual performance of aircraft. K-method or p-k method is the better analysis
method for such dynamic aeroelastic problem which in real life is unsteady and frequency
dependent.

REFERENCE
Babister, A. W. (June 1950). Flutter and Divergence of Sweptback and Sweptforward Wings.
Retrieved

from

https://dspace.lib.cranfield.ac.uk/bitstream/1826/7209/3/COA_Report_No_39_JUN_1950.
pdf on 21 November 2013.
Wright, J. R. (2007). Introduction to Aircraft Aeroelasticity and Loads. Dynamic Aeroelasticity
Flutter (pp167-pp199). West Sussex, England: John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Mohammad Sadraey. Wing Design. School of Engineering and Computer Sciences Daniel
Webster College, 2013.
Mohammad Yazdi Harmin. (2013). Lecture on Dynamic Aeroelasticity Flutter. Personal
Collection of Mohammad Yazdi Harmin, University Putra Malaysia, Selangor.

APPENDIX
Aeroelastic Equation

where
=

Frequency Matching k method

MATLAB coding
clear all; ; clc
%Parameters
m = 100; % unit mass / area of wing
c = 1.7; % chord in m
s = 7; % semi span in m
xcm = 0.5*c; % position of centre of mass from nose
xf = 0.5*c; % position of flexural axis from nose
e = xf/c-0.25;% eccentricity between flexural axis and aero centre (1/4chord)
K_k = 1.2277e7; % Flap Stiffness in Nm/rad
K_t = 7.2758e5; % Pitch Stiffness in Nm/rad
Mthetadot = -1.2; % unsteady aero damping term
roll = 1.225; % air density in kg/m^3
aw = 2*pi; % 2D lift curve slope
M = (m*c^2/(2*xcm))-m*c; % leading edge mass term
b=c/2;
%Inertial, Damping and Stiffness Matrix
a11=(m*s^3*c)/3 + M*s^3/3; % I kappa based on pg 179
a12 = ((m*s^2)/2)*(c^2/2 - c*xf) - M*s^2*xf/2; %I kappa theta
a21 = a12;
a22= m*s*(c^3/3 - c^2*xf + xf^2*c) + M*(s*xf^2); % I theta
A=[a11,a12;a21,a22];
b11=c*s^3*aw/6;
b12=0;
b21=-e*c^2*s^2*aw/4;
b22=-c^3*s/8*Mthetadot;
B=[b11 b12; b21 b22]
c11=0;
c12=c*s^2*aw/4;
c21=c11;
c22=-e*c^2*s*aw/2;
C=[c11 c12; c21 c22]
D=zeros(2)
e11=K_k;
e12=0;
e21=e12;
e22=K_t;
E=[e11 e12; e21 e22]
% %Find Eigenvalue of Lambda, Frequency and Damping Ratio
ii=1;
for V=1:0.1:180
Q=[zeros(2) eye(2); -A\(roll*V^2*C+E) -A\(roll*V*B+D)];
lambda=eig(Q);
for j = 1:4
im(j) = imag(lambda(j));
re(j) = real(lambda(j));
freq(j,ii) = sqrt(re(j)^2+im(j)^2);
damp(j,ii) = -100*re(j)/freq(j,ii);

freq(j,ii) = freq(j,ii)/(2*pi);
end
Vel(ii) = V;
ii=ii+1;
end
%Find Flutter speed
for dd=1:1:4
for l=1:1:numel(damp(1,:))
if damp(dd,l)<=0 && l>1
vflut_high(dd)=Vel(l);
vflut_low(dd)=Vel(l-1);
dd_high(dd)=damp(dd,l);
dd_low(dd)=damp(dd,l-1);
coef(dd)=dd_high(dd)/-dd_low(dd);
vflut(dd)=(vflut_high(dd)+coef(dd)*vflut_low(dd))/(coef(dd)+1);
break
else
vflut(dd)=1000;
end
end
end
vflutter=min(vflut);
%Display result
figure(1)
subplot(2,1,1); plot(Vel,freq,'k');
title('Vf plot','fontsize',15);
xlabel ('Air Speed (m/s) '); ylabel ('Frequency (Hz)'); grid
subplot(2,1,2);
plot(Vel,damp,'k'); hold on
title('Vg plot','fontsize',15);
xlabel ('Air Speed (m/s) '); ylabel ('Damping Ratio (%)'); grid on; hold on
plot(vflutter,0,'ro','markerfacecolor','r');
text(vflutter,0,['\leftarrowFlutter Speed:',...
num2str(roundn(vflutter,-2)),'m/s'],'fontsize',12,'fontweight','bold')
fprintf('The flutter speed is %5.2f. m/s.',vflutter)
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
%b) effect of flexural axis on flutter speed
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
iii=1;
for xf=0.1*c:0.1*c:0.8*c
e=xf/c-0.25;
%Inertial, Damping and Stiffness Matrix
a111=(m*s^3*c)/3 + M*s^3/3;
a122= m*s*(c^3/3 - c^2*xf + xf^2*c) + M*(s*xf^2);
a112 = ((m*s^2)/2)*(c^2/2 - c*xf) - M*s^2*xf/2;
a121 = a112;
A1=[a111,a112;a121,a122];

b111=c*s^3*aw/6;
b112=0;
b121=-e*c^2*s^2*aw/4;
b122=-c^3*s/8*Mthetadot;
B1=[b111 b112; b121 b122];
c111=0;
c112=c*s^2*aw/4;
c121=c111;
c122=-e*c^2*s*aw/2;
C1=[c111 c112; c121 c122];
%Find Eigenvalue of lambda
kk=1;
for V=1:1:200
Q1=[zeros(2) eye(2); -A1\(roll*V^2*C1+E) -A1\(roll*V*B1+D)];
lambda1=eig(Q1);
Vel1(kk)=V;
%Find frequency and damping ratio
for jj = 1:4
im1(jj) = imag(lambda1(jj));
re1(jj) = real(lambda1(jj));
freq1(jj,kk) = sqrt(re1(jj)^2+im1(jj)^2);
damp1(jj,kk) = -100*re1(jj)/freq1(jj,kk);
freq1(jj,kk) = freq1(jj,kk)/(2*pi);
end
%Find Flutter Speed
kk=kk+1;
for ddd=1:1:4
for ll=1:1:numel(damp1(1,:))
if damp1(ddd,ll)<=0 && ll>1
vflut_high1(ddd)=Vel1(ll);
vflut_low1(ddd)=Vel1(ll-1);
dd_high1(ddd)=damp1(ddd,ll);
dd_low1(ddd)=damp1(ddd,ll-1);
coef1(ddd)=dd_high1(ddd)/-dd_low1(ddd);
vflut1(ddd)=(vflut_high1(ddd)+coef1(ddd)*vflut_low1(ddd))/(coef1(ddd)+1);
break
else
vflut1(ddd)=1000;
end
end
end
end
xff(iii)=xf/c;
vflutter1(iii)=min(vflut1);
iii=iii+1;
end
%Display result
figure(2)
plot(xff,vflutter1)
title(['Flutter speed, V_f_l_u_t_t_e_r (m/s) vs Flexural axis,'...

'x_f at x_c_m = 0.5c'])

grid on
xlabel('Flexural axis, x_f per chord (m/m)')
ylabel('Flutter speed, V_f_l_u_t_t_e_r (m/s)')
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
% c)effect of flap and pitch stiffness on flutter speed
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
% %Reset value
xf=0.5*c;
e = xf/c-0.25;
%Find Eigenvalue of Lambda and Flutter Speed
ii=1;
for K_k=0.5e7:0.1e7:5e7
%Structural Stiffness
e211=K_k;
e212=0;
e221=e212;
e222=K_t;
E2=[e211 e212; e221 e222];
k=1;
for V=1:1:200
Q2=[zeros(2) eye(2);
lambda2=eig(Q2);
Vel2(k)=V;

-A\(roll*V^2*C+E2) -A\(roll*V*B+D)];

for j = 1:4
im2(j) = imag(lambda2(j));
re2(j) = real(lambda2(j));
freq2(j,k) = sqrt(re2(j)^2+im2(j)^2);
damp2(j,k) = -100*re2(j)/freq2(j,k);
freq2(j,k) = freq2(j,k)/(2*pi); % convert frequency to hertz
end
k=k+1;
for dd=1:1:4
for l=1:1:numel(damp2(1,:))
if damp2(dd,l)<=0 && l>1
vflut_high2(dd)=Vel2(l);
vflut_low2(dd)=Vel2(l-1);
dd_high2(dd)=damp2(dd,l);
dd_low2(dd)=damp2(dd,l-1);
coef2(dd)=dd_high2(dd)/-dd_low2(dd);
vflut2(dd)=(vflut_high2(dd)+coef2(dd)*vflut_low2(dd))/(coef2(dd)+1);
break
else
vflut2(dd)=1000;
end
end
end
end
K_kappa(ii)=K_k;
vflutter2(ii)=min(vflut2);

ii=ii+1;
end
%Display Result
figure(3)
plot(K_kappa,vflutter2)
title(...
'Flutter Speed, V_f_l_u_t_t_e_r(m/s) vs Flap Stiffness, K_\kappa(Nm/rad)')
grid on
xlabel('Flap Stiffness, K_\kappa (Nm/rad)')
ylabel('Flutter Speed, V_f_l_u_t_t_e_r (m/s)')
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
%Reset Value
K_k=1.2277e7;
%Find Eigenvalue of Lambda and Flutter Speed
ii=1;
for K_t=1e5:0.1e5:10e5
e311=K_k;
e312=0;
e321=e12;
e322=K_t;
E3=[e311 e312; e321 e322];
k=1;
for V=1:1:200
Q3=[zeros(2) eye(2); -A\(roll*V^2*C+E3) -A\(roll*V*B+D)];
lambda3=eig(Q3);
Vel3(k)=V;
for j = 1:4
im3(j) = imag(lambda3(j));
re3(j) = real(lambda3(j));
freq3(j,k) = sqrt(re3(j)^2+im3(j)^2);
damp3(j,k) = -100*re3(j)/freq3(j,k);
freq3(j,k) = freq3(j,k)/(2*pi); % convert frequency to hertz
end
k=k+1;
for dd=1:1:4
for l=1:1:numel(damp3(1,:))
if damp3(dd,l)<=0 && l>1
vflut_high3(dd)=Vel3(l);
vflut_low3(dd)=Vel3(l-1);
dd_high3(dd)=damp3(dd,l);
dd_low3(dd)=damp3(dd,l-1);
coef3(dd)=dd_high3(dd)/-dd_low3(dd);
vflut3(dd)=(vflut_high3(dd)+coef3(dd)*vflut_low3(dd))/(coef3(dd)+1);
break
else
vflut3(dd)=1000;
end
end
end
end
K_theta(ii)=K_t;
vflutter3(ii)=min(vflut3);
ii=ii+1;

end
%Display Result
figure(4)
plot(K_theta,vflutter3)
title(...
'Flutter Speed, V_f_l_u_t_t_e_r(m/s) vs Pitch Stiffness, K_\theta(Nm/rad)')
grid on
xlabel('Pitch Stiffness, K_\theta (Nm/rad)')
ylabel('Flutter Speed, V_f_l_u_t_t_e_r (m/s)')
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
%d) K-method
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
%Reset Value
K_theta=7.2758e5;
j=1;
for k=1:-0.01:0.1
kk(j)=k;
Mthetadot=-5/(2+5*k);
b11=c*s^3*aw/6;
b12=0;
b21=-e*c^2*s^2*aw/4;
b22=-c^3*s*Mthetadot/8;
B=[b11 b12; b21 b22];
F=A-i*roll*(b/k)*B-roll*((b/k)^2)*C;
lambda4=eig(F*inv(E));
for l=1:1:2
F_array(l,j)=F(l);
lambda_array(l,j)=lambda4(l);
omega(l,j)=1/sqrt(real(lambda4(l)));
g(l,j)=imag(lambda4(l))/real(lambda4(l));
V4(l,j)=omega(l,j)*c/(2*k);
freq4(l,j)=omega(l,j)/(2*pi);
end
j=j+1;
end
for dd=1:1:2
for l=1:1:numel(g(1,:))
if g(dd,l)>=0 && l>1
vflut_high4(dd)=V4(dd,l);
vflut_low4(dd)=V4(dd,l-1);
g_high(dd)=g(dd,l);
g_low(dd)=g(dd,l-1);
coef4(dd)=g_high(dd)/-g_low(dd);
vflut4(dd)=(vflut_high4(dd)+coef4(dd)*vflut_low4(dd))/(coef4(dd)+1);
red_freq(dd)=(kk(l)+coef4(dd)*kk(l-1))/(coef4(dd)+1);
break
else
vflut4(dd)=1000;
red_freq(dd)=1000;
end
end
end
vflutter4=min(vflut4)

red_freq1=red_freq(vflut4==vflutter4)
flutter_freq=(vflutter4*red_freq1/b)/(2*pi)
Vel4(1,length(V4))=0;
Vel4(2,:)=V4(1,:);
Vel4(3,:)=V4(2,:);
Freq(1,length(freq4))=0;
Freq(2,:)=freq4(1,:);
Freq(3,:)=freq4(2,:);
%Display Result
figure (5)
title('Vf plot','fontsize',15)
xlabel ('Air Speed (m/s) '); ylabel ('Frequency (Hz)'); grid on; hold on
plot(V4(1,:),freq4(1,:),'b','linewidth',1.5); hold on
plot(V4(2,:),freq4(2,:),'g','linewidth',1.5); hold on
plot(Vel4,Freq,'--');hold on
legend('Mode 1','Mode 2','Reduced Frequency, k')
text(max(V4(1,:)),freq4(1,j-1),['\leftarrownode for V_i at k_i'],...
'fontsize',12,'fontweight','bold')
for l=1:1:length(freq4)
for ll=1:1:2
plot(V4(ll,l),freq4(ll,l),'ko','markerfacecolor','k','markersize',5)
hold on
end
end
figure(6)
xlabel ('Air Speed (m/s) '); ylabel ('Damping coefficient, g');
grid on; hold on;
title('Vg plot','fontsize',15)
plot(V4(1,:),g(1,:),'linewidth',1.5);hold on
plot(V4(2,:),g(2,:),'g','linewidth',1.5); hold on
plot(vflutter4,0,'or','markerfacecolor','r');hold on
legend('Mode 1','Mode 2')
text(vflutter4,0,['\leftarrowFlutter Speed:',...
num2str(roundn(vflutter4,-2)),'m/s'],'fontsize',12,'fontweight','bold')
fprintf('The flutter speed is %5.2f m/s.',vflutter4 )
fprintf('\nReduced frequency, k= %5.4f',red_freq1)
fprintf('\nFlutter frequency, f= %4.2fHz',flutter_freq)