ANALYZING THE FLUTTER PHENOMENON IN AIRCRAFT: A REVIEW OF METHODS AND MODERN SOLUTIONS

Abstract

In this project, the phenomenon of flutter wave occurrence in aircraft was carefully reviewed. The first sighting of flutter, how it was handled, and the evolution of aircraft design to accommodate flutter incidents were highlighted. The many methods of analyzing the flutter speed of an aircraft coupled with the software developed to help in simulating flight conditions which help determine when an aircraft will experience flutter were also presented. Lastly, the damping required to hamper the wild oscillation that occurs during flutter occurrences were also briefly enumerated. The methods such as the k method, the p method, and the p-k method used in analyzing the flutter characteristics have been discussed. Also, a number of techniques used to damp the fierce oscillation during the flutter phenomenon in aircraft have been reviewed concisely. These include; the mass balance, aluminum lithium alloy, limiting the flight envelope, and the yaw damper. The results showed that the shear stress of the aluminum lithium alloy increases with every rise in percentage of lithium. The rise in shear stress increases the stiffness of the material. The yaw damper greatly increases the response of a system to flutter. A system with a yaw damper after experiencing spontaneous flutter, has a setting time of 7.84 seconds. The system without a yaw damper has a setting time of 30.8 seconds, this is a large margin. The gap of 22.96 seconds is enough to damage a system unable to respond fast enough. The p-k method determines the degree of flutter at various speeds, calculating for any slight change during flight. The damping ratio of any system increases along with the mass ratio, large mass equals large damping in any oscillating system. The results reviewed show that flutter is significantly reduced using the mentioned solutions.