Rotorcraft Aerodynamics Group

Unsteady Aerodynamics of a Flapped Airfoil in Subsonic Flow by Indicial Concepts

Nagarajan Hariharan and Dr. Gordon Leishman

Abstract

An approach, based on the indicial method, is described for computing the unsteady lift, pitching moment, hinge moment and the drag on a thin airfoil in subsonic compressible flow due to arbitrary motion of a trailing-edge flap. First, exact indicial responses at small values of time due to trailing-edge flap deflection are obtained from linear unsteady subsonic theory in conjunction with the aerodynamic reverse flow theorems. Using an assumed analytic form for the indicial functions, these results are then used to help obtain complete asymptotic approximations for the indicial responses due to impulsive flap deflection and flap rate motion. The airloads due to arbitrary flap motion are subsequently obtained in state-space form, which is a form suitable for many forms of aeroelasticity analyses. Validation of the method is conducted with experimental data for oscillating flap motion at various subsonic Mach numbers.

Presented as paper AIAA 95-1228 at the 36th AIAA/ASME/ASCE/AHS/ASC Structures, Structural Dynamics, and Materials Conference, April 10-12, 1995, New Orleans, LA.

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Nagarajan Hariharan

Last modified: Sat Feb 10 14:46:51 EST 1996 by fencer