Numerical investigation of the effects of structural geometric and material nonlinearities on limit-cycle oscillation of a cropped delta wing

This article presents numerical simulations of the limit-cycle oscillation (LCO) of a cropped delta wing in order to investigate the effects of structural geometric and material nonlinearities on aeroelastic behavior. In the computational model, the structural part included both the geometric nonlinearity that arises from large deflections, and the material nonlinearity that originates from plasticity. The Euler equations were employed in the fluid part to describe the transonic aerodynamics. Moreover, the load transfer was conducted using a 3-D interpolating procedure, and the interfaces between the structural and aerodynamic domains were constructed in the form of an exact match. The flutter and LCO behaviors of the cropped delta wing were simulated using the coupling model, and the results were compared with existing experimental measurements. For lower dynamic pressures, the geometric nonlinearity provided the proper mechanism for the development of the LCO, and the numerical results correlated with the experimental values. For higher dynamic pressures, the material nonlinearity led to a rapid rise in the LCO amplitude, and the simulated varying trend was consistent with the experimental observation. This study demonstrated that the LCO of the cropped delta wing was not only closely related to geometric nonlinearity, but was also remarkably affected by material nonlinearity.