Shape sensitivity analysis of flutter characteristics of a low aspect ratio supersonic wing using analytical method

Shape sensitivities of flutter characteristics can predict the moving of flutter boundary as wing shape varies. The nonlinear re- lationship between mass, stiffness and damping matrices of aeroelastic systems and shape variables makes the flutter charac- teristics vary nonlinearly as shape variables change. The computation cost of finite difference method is high and it cannot solve precisely shape sensitivities. An analytic method is developed to compute sensitivities of flutter characteristics of low aspect ratio wings to shape parameters, which include aspect ratio, taper ratio, sweep angle, and area. On the basis of the equivalent plate model and piston theory, analytic sensitivities of mass, stiffness and damping matrices with respect to various shape parameters are computed. The equivalent plate model is a continuous aeroelasticity analysis model oriented toward wing design. The flutter equation is solved by tracking the root locus of the system state space model. Lancaster＇s adjoint method is used to solve the eigenvalue derivatives and shape sensitivities of flutter characteristics. Linear Taylor approximation based on the analytic sensitivities is used to predict the variation of flutter speed with respect to shape variables. Comparison of these results with those from reanalysis indicates that Taylor approximation based on analytic sensitivities can precisely predict trends of flutter characteristics near the baseline configuration, but the applied neighborhood is small for sweep and area. The method can help designers make a judicious choice of wing shape parameters for preventing flutter in the preliminary design phase of aircraft.