Aerothermal-aeroelastic two-way coupling method for hypersonic flutter of three-dimensional curved panel

A method to consider aerothermal-aeroelastic two-way coupling for hypersonic flutter of three-dimensional curved panel is proposed. The aero-thermo-elastic governing equations of a simply-supported three dimensional curved panel are developed based on the von Ḱarḿan geometrically non-linear theory. The finite element modal formulation is used to simplify the equations into discrete forms, which are solved by the fourth-order Ronger- Kutta method. The third-order piston theory is applied to the aerodynamic analysis. The Eckert's reference temperature method and the panel heat flux formula are used to compute the aerodynamic heat flux. Firstly, the effect of initial deformation of curved panel on the critical dynamic pressure is studied; then, the aerothermal-aeroelastic two-way coupling method considering the effect of elastic deformation on aerodynamic heating and the effect of aerodynamic heating on stiffness of structure is established; meanwhile, the accumulation of the aerodynamic heating in real cruise and the arbitrary, non-uniform, in-plane and through-thickness temperature distributions are included. Compared with the results of aerothermal-aeroelastic one-way coupling, it is revealed that the two-way coupling's results which induces decrease of the flight time to the onset of flutter is more dangerous. In addition, importance should be attached to this method in actual analysis.