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Aeroelastic damping estimation for a flexible high-aspect-ratio wing

Tsatsas, Ilias; Pontillo, Alessandro; Lone, Mudassir

Authors

Ilias Tsatsas

Mudassir Lone



Abstract

Estimation of aeroelastic damping for a very flexible high-aspect-ratio wing using wind-tunnel test data is presented in this work through the comparison of four different methods: half-power, half-quadratic gain, an adapted version of random decrement, and the least-square complex exponential method. A model with an aspect ratio of 18.8 was tested in the Cranfield 2.4×1.8-m (8×6-ft) low-speed wind tunnel across a Reynolds number range of 2.33×105-4.66×105 and dynamically excited using the step relaxation technique. Analysis of the results provides a view of the benefits and limitations of each method, which were seen to differ between 3% and 25% relative to the half-power for the dominant first mode. The trends in predicted damping show clear dependency on freestream velocity. Structural damping of the first mode was also obtained using ground vibration test data to separate the aerodynamic and structural contributions to the overall aeroelastic damping. Structural damping was found to be around 5% and the aerodynamic component was found to add approximately 7.5% at one specific test condition. Although the half-power method is widely used in the community for calculating structural damping, this work shows that when aeroelastic damping is higher than 5%, the other three examined methods yield more consistent results.

Journal Article Type Article
Acceptance Date Dec 21, 2021
Online Publication Date Dec 21, 2021
Publication Date Mar 31, 2022
Deposit Date Apr 22, 2024
Journal Journal of Aerospace Engineering
Print ISSN 0893-1321
Electronic ISSN 1943-5525
Publisher American Society of Civil Engineers
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 35
Issue 2
DOI https://doi.org/10.1061/%28ASCE%29AS.1943-5525.0001390
Public URL https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/11886321