NUMERICAL MODELING AND DYNAMIC SIMULATIONS OF NONLINEAR AEROTHERMOELASTIC OF A DOUBLE-WEDGE LIFTING SURFACE

The design of the re-entry space vehicles and high-speed aircrafts requires special attention to the nonlinear thermoelastic and aerodynamic instabilities of their structural components. The thermal effects are important since temperature environment influences significantly the static and dynamic behaviors of flight structures in supersonic/hypersonic regimes. To contribute to the understanding of dynamic behavior of these “hot” structures, a double-wedge lifting surface with combined freeplay and cubic stiffening structural nonlinearities in both plunging and pitching degrees-of-freedom operating in supersonic/hypersonic flight speed regimes has been analyzed. A third order Piston Theory Aerodynamics is used to evaluate the applied nonlinear unsteady aerodynamic loads. The loss of torsional stiffness that may be incurred by lifting surfaces subjected to axial stresses induced by aerodynamic heating is also considered. The aerodynamic heating effect is estimated based on the adiabatic wall temperature due to high speed airstreams. Modelling issues as well as simulation results have been presented and pertinent conclusions outlined. It is highlighted that a serious loss of torsional stiffness may induce the dynamic instability of the lifting surfaces. The influence of various parameters such as flight condition, thickness ratio, freeplays and pitching stiffness nonlinearity are also discussed.