Numerical investigation of the aeroelastic response of a NACA0012-profile in flutter condition including cubic nonlinear stiffness using URANS based simulations

Abstract

The objective of this paper is to compare an analytical modeling approach to a coupled aerodynamic multibody simulation to describe the aeroelastic response of a NACA0012 profile. For analytical model, flutter velocity is determined using eigenvalues. For the numerical model the Unsteady Reynolds Averaged Navier-Stokes (URANS) simulations combined with a simple multibody model are used to determine flutter, through a sequential search. In addition, nonlinear stiffness of the cubic type associated to plunge movement is included and compared to the linear model. The inclusion of cubic nonlinear stiffness can increase flutter velocity and limit cycle oscillation amplitudes.