Interval Finite Element Analysis of Wing Flutter

The influences of uncertainties in structural parameters on the flutter speed of wing are studied. On the basis of the deterministic flutter analysis model of wing, the uncertainties in structural parameters are considered and described by interval numbers. By virtue of first-order Taylor series expansion, the lower and upper bound curves of the transient decay rate coefficient versus wind velocity are given. So the interval estimation of the flutter critical wind speed of wing can be obtained, which is more reasonable than the point estimation obtained by the deterministic flutter analysis and provides the basis for the further non-probabilistic interval reliability analysis of wing flutter. The flow chart for interval finite element model of flutter analysis of wing is given. The proposed interval finite element model and the stochastic finite element model for wing flutter analysis are compared by the examples of a three degrees of freedom airfoil and fuselage and a 15° sweptback wing, and the results have shown the effectiveness and feasibility of the presented model. The prominent advantage of the proposed interval finite element model is that only the bounds of uncertain parameters are required, and the probabilistic distribution densities or other statistical characteristics are not needed.