Flutter analysis of an articulated high aspect ratio wing in subsonic airflow

We present a methodology for calculating flutter speeds of a high aspect ratio flying wing articulated with point masses in inviscid air flow. This highly flexible wing configuration typically models a HALE (High Altitude Long Endurance) UAV (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle) type aircraft. To demonstrate the procedure, we perform flutter analysis on an actual articulated wing model and we investigate the dependence of the flutter speed on the number of loads mounted onto the structure and the number of panels comprising the flying wing for both varying and constant span. The results show that the flutter speed decreases as more panels and point masses are incorporated into the flying wing. On the other hand, the number of point masses mounted onto the structure has a small effect on the flutter speed if the wing span is kept constant.