Flow Angle, Temperature, and Aerodynamic Damping on Supersonic Panel Flutter Stability Boundary

The effects of flow yaw angle, temperature, and aerodynamic damping on supersonic flutter of plates are investigated. Quasisteady, first-order piston theory is employed for formulation of aerodynamic forces. The von Karman large-deflection plate theory is adapted for the aerothermal deflection. Two types of thermal effects are considered: 1) plate expansion by uniform temperature and 2) thermal moment induced by temperature gradient across the plate thickness. A finite element modal formulation and a two-step procedure are presented for the predictions of stability boundaries and nonlinear aerothermal deflection and shown to be efficient in solution. Results have shown that flow angle has lesser effect on stability boundaries as compared with temperature for isotropic square plates. However, both flow angle and temperature have a large influence on stability boundaries for rectangular isotropic and laminated composite plates. The presence of the "ripple" characteristics of stability boundaries for composite plates caused by the frequency coalescence of higher modes and the smaller effect of aerodynamic damping is investigated. The stabilization effects on panel motions induced by variations of flow angle, temperature, and aerodynamic damping are discussed.