Aeroelastic tailoring of a plate wing with functionally graded materials

A functionally graded material (FGM) provides a spatial blend of material properties throughout a structure. This paper studies the efficacy of FGM for the aeroelastic tailoring of a metallic cantilever plate-like wing, wherein a genetic algorithm provides Pareto trade-off curves between static and dynamic aeroelastic metrics. A key comparison is between the effectiveness of material grading, geometric grading (i.e. plate thickness variations), and using both simultaneously. The introduction of material grading does, in some cases, improve the aeroelastic performance. This improvement, and the physical mechanism upon which it is based, depends on numerous factors: the two sets of metallic material parameters used for grading; the sweep of the plate; the aspect ratio of the plate; and whether the material is graded continuously or discretely.