Coupling Interactions in Aeroelastic Analysis of 3D Aircraft Wings with Control Surface During Flight

Abstract

This work investigates the dynamic characteristics of a system susceptible to flutter phenomena during aircraft flight operation while considering fluctuations in critical system parameters, including stiffness, damping, flap angle, angle of attack, and yaw angle. A parametric analysis was conducted to quantify the influence of each parameter on the system response, particularly focusing on bending and torsional mode. To substantiate the findings, comparing simulated, theoretical, and experimental results shows good agreement in overall trends. The results show that increasing stiffness from 100 N/m to 300 N/m reduced the peak bending displacement by approximately 80%, demonstrating a strong stabilizing effect. Similarly, increasing the damping coefficient from 0.1 to 1 resulted in a 40% reduction in torsional angle amplitude, highlighting the importance of damping in controlling the system’s oscillatory behavior. Additionally, aerodynamic variations such as yaw angle shifts from 0o to 5o increased bending displacement amplitude by 70%, revealing the system’s sensitivity to aerodynamic conditions. Similarly, increasing the angle of attack from 0o to 10o increases the bending displacement amplitude by 50% Emplacing the perturbative effect that elevated angles of attack exert on the system. The flap angle was also found to have a significant impact, with 60% increase in flutter speed observed when the flap angle was increased from 0o to 30o, reducing the system’s susceptibility to instability. © 2025 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.