MAE 589C - AIRWORTHINESS

IN AIRCRAFT DESIGN AND

CERTIFICATION
Class #4
Dr. Stephen P. Cook
spcook@ncsu.edu
Office: Broughton 3197
Office Phone: 919-515-5260
Mobile: 240-538-6226
 Admin – Next 3 Weeks
• Tue, 02 Sep: MIL-HDBK-516 Chapter 5
– No office hours today
• Thu, 04 Sep: MIL-HDBK-516 Chapter 5/6
• Tue, 09 Sep: NO CLASS
• Thu, 11 Sep: NO CLASS
• Tue, 16 Sep: MIL-HDBK-516 Chapter 6
• Thu, 18 Sep: HW #1 Discussion
 Structural Dynamics
• Phenomena
• Criteria/Standards
• Verification Methods

• Acknowledgements
– Dr. Thomas Strganac, Texas A&M
Structural Dynamics
Can Ruin Your Day
 Some Aeroelastic Phenomena
• Divergence – permanent deformation due to
aerodynamic forces exceeding the elastic
restoring capability of the structure
• Control Surface Reversal – Loss or opposite
response of a control surface due to elasticity of
structure
• Flutter – oscillatory instability where one mode of
motion is driven to resonance by a second
mode.
• Buzz/Buffet – high frequency instabilities cause
by unsteady separations, shocks, etc.
Divergence Equations
Flutter Equations
1st Bending Mode 1st Torsional Mode

2nd Bending Mode 2nd Torsional Mode

 Structural Dynamics Criteria:
Aeroelasticity
• Criterion:
– Verify that the air vehicle in all configurations
(including stores) is free of flutter, divergence,
and other aeroelastic instabilities
• Standard:
– Margin of safety of 1.15 Ve on the limit speed
at both constant Mach number and constant
altitude
– Total damping, g, is not less than 0.03 for all
altitudes and flight speeds
 Structural Dynamics Criteria:
Aeroservoelasticity
• Criterion:
– Verify that the aircraft is free of aeroelastic
and aeroservoelastic phenomena due to
systems interactions
• Standard:
– Gain margin of 6dB and 60 deg of phase
margin for control system feedback loops
 Structural Dynamics Criteria:
Freeplay
• Criterion:
– Verify that the control surfaces and tabs contain either
sufficient static and dynamic mass balance, or
sufficient bending, torsional and rotational rigidity, or a
combination of these means, to prevent flutter, or
sustained limited amplitude instabilities for all flight
conditions . . .
• Standard:
– Freeplay of surfaces and tabs less than 1 deg
(becomes more stringent as control surface location
moves outboard)
 Structural Dynamics Criteria:
Aeroacoustics
• Criterion:
– Verify that the airframe structure withstands the aeroacoustic
loads and vibrations induced by aeroacoustic loads for the air
vehicles specified service life and usage without cracking or
functional impairment.
• Standard:
– All aeroacoustic loads sources associated with the air vehicle
and its usage are identified.
– Airframe designed with uncertainty factor of +3.5dB applied on
the predicted aeroacoustic sound pressure levels.
– The airframe is designed for fatigue life such that a factor of 2.0
is applied on the exposure time derived from the air vehicle
specified service life and usage.
 Structural Dynamics Criteria:
Cavity Flows
• Criterion:
– Verify that the structures, equipment, and
equipment provisions in, adjacent to, or
immediately downstream of cavities open to
the airstream during flight are designed for the
effects of oscillatory air forces
• Standard:
– Aircraft must be surveyed for oscillatory flows;
flow control devices may be added
 Verification Methods
• Aeroelastic models
– Consist of a model of the structure with a model of
unsteady aero loads
– Solver that predicts frequency and damping behavior
for different flight conditions and aircraft
configurations
– Large number of models available for both structural
dynamics and unsteady aerodynamics
• Linear
• Computational
 Verification Methods
• Wind Tunnel
– NASA Transonic Dynamics Tunnel is premier
facility
– Wind tunnel models inertially scaled
– Can use heavy gas to better match dynamic
pressure
 Verification Methods:
Ground Vibration Testing
• Aircraft structure is excited at various
frequencies and response recorded
• Resulting transfer function compared to
aeroelastic models
 Verification Methods:
Flutter Flight Testing
• Very expensive
– Configurations
– Constant Mach flights
– Constant Altitude flights
– Flutter Excitation Control Unit
• F/A-18E/F Clean Configuration:
– 132 flights
– 236 flight hours
 Homework #1 – Due 18 Sep 08
• You are working for WolfJet, Inc. as a fixed-wing structural dynamics
engineer. Your team lead has asked you to develop an aeroelastic model
to assess the structural dynamics characteristics of the proposed
subsonic WolfJet 3000 aircraft with the purpose of reducing the number of
required wind tunnel and flight test points needed to certify the aircraft.

1) What are the governing structural and aerodynamic equations? (15 pts)
2) What simplifying assumptions will you elect to make? What are the pros
and cons of these assumptions? (15 pts)
3) What variables will you need to solve for? What input variables and
boundary conditions will you need? (15 pts)
4) Which MIL-HDBK-516 criteria are applicable to your model? (Note:
Chapter 4 criteria should be considered). (15 pts)
5) What data will you request from ground and flight tests for verification of
your model? (15 pts)

• For class discussion, present a flow chart describing the steps in the
algorithm your solver will use. Turn in a copy of the flow chart along with
the written answers at the beginning of class on 9/18 (25 pts for flow chart
and its presentation).