The Modern Method of Creating Dynamically Scaled Models to Study Aircraft Flutter Characteristics

Abstract

A complex research, which included the design, manufacture, and testing of a dynamically scaled model of the all-moving tail (AMT) of an aircraft with the numerical calculations at each stage, was carried out. The dynamically scaled model was designed to study flutter characteristics in a wind tunnel. For the all-moving tail, the model consists of a plywood core with fiberglass, carbon fiber, and shaping foam material, all glued layer by layer. In order to reliably determine the flutter boundaries, the dynamically scaled model should accurately reproduce the dynamic characteristics of the full-scale structure. With this aim, an approach was deve-loped to obtain the experimental modal characteristics and refine the dynamic mathematical models at each stage of manufacturing of the dynamically scaled model. For the dynamically scaled model refinement, one of the mathematical models was structurally similar based on finite elements, while the other one was made based on the polynomial method with plate and beam elements and then used to calculate the flutter boundaries. This approach ensured the high accuracy in modelling the dynamic properties of the full-scale all-moving tail and in the experimental determination of the flutter boundaries.