Study of Chaotic Behavior in the Nonlinear Dynamic Response of an Airfoil with a Trailing Edge Flap
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Abstract
Even though flutter is a linear phenomenon, no connections between LCO, a nonlinear version of flutter, and chaos have been made. To make this connection, an internal structure for an airfoil was optimized to maximize stiffness, any changes in the aerodynamics of the optimized structure were calculated, and finally, a Finite Element model was developed to excite the aeroelastic structure. The results show that the simulation must run for an extended period of time, that the Lyapunov exponent parameters used were acceptable for the linear system, and that the chaos of the nonlinear system could not be commented on until further analysis is performed.