Aeroelastic Scaling of a Joined Wing for Nonlinear Geometric Stiffness

Abstract

This study demonstrates an aeroelastic scaling procedure that accounts for geometric nonlinearity by scaling the eigenvalue associated with the buckling load. The Goland wing model was used as a case study to demonstrate that both the natural frequencies andmode shapes must be matched to properly scale the aeroelastic response. A variant of the Goland wing joined with a strut was developed as the case study for scaling geometric nonlinearity. Scaling its first buckling eigenvalue together with the natural frequencies and mode shapes resulted in accurate aeroelastically scaled response in the initial nonlinear range. The fully nonlinear response of the scaledmodel decreased in accuracy as the critical load predicted by the buckling eigenanalysis was approached.