Aeroelastic instability of aircraft composite wings in an incompressible flow

The aeroelastic stability of an aircraft wing modeled as an anisotropic composite thin-walled beam in an incompressible flow is investigated. The wing is built-up as a single-cell box beam whose central point is noncoincident with the mid-chord of the profile. The effects of material anisotropy, transverse shear, warping inhibition, nonuniform torsional model and rotary inertia are considered in the structural model. The unsteady incompressible aerodynamics based on Wagner’s function is used to determine the aerodynamic loads. The effects of the offset between reference axis and the mid-chord (“a” parameter), fiber orientation and sweep angle on stability boundary are considered, their effects on the stability boundary are discussed and a number of important conclusions are drawn.