A New Pre-Stretching Method to Increase Critical Flutter Dynamic Pressure of Heated Panel in Supersonic Airflow

Abstract

Numerical and analytical investigations were performed to study the panel flutter generated by the coupling of elastic and aerodynamic loads with thermal loads. Based on large deflection theory and piston aerodynamic theory, the nonlinear dynamic differential equations of heated panels with pre-stretch displacement are derived. The Galerkin method is applied to transform the continuous partial differential equations into a nonlinear system of ordinary differential equations. The analytical expressions of the flutter critical dynamic pressure and flutter frequency, the static divergence stability boundary and the Hopf bifurcation fluttering stability boundary for the initial equilibrium of the panel can be obtained through the algebraic criterion of the Hopf bifurcation. The results show that, compared to the non-pre-stretch condition, when the pre-strain of the panel was merely 0.0328%, the flutter critical dynamic pressure and flutter frequency increased by 380.78% and 223.43%, respectively. Moreover, the pre-stretching method can significantly enhance the capacity of the supersonic panel to sustain temperature loads.