Unsteady airload of an airfoil with variable camber

With the application of new materials and actuators an aerodynamic surface with variable geometry can be manufactured that offers the possibility of vibration and flutter suppression. For this purpose, the analytical solution for calculation of the unsteady airload on the airfoil with variable camber was derived for the incompressible potential flow. The calculated results were confirmed with a numerical time stepping method. In addition, the effects of the location of the maximum camber along the chord and the reduced frequency on the airload were analysed. The presented, computationally efficient solution written in frequency and time domain offers a possibility to design an active control of the airfoil camber for the purpose of vibration and flutter suppression.