Experimental and Numerical Nonlinear Stability Analysis of Wings Incorporating Flared Folding Wingtips

What is it about?

Beyond a certain speed aircraft can experience unwanted vibrations that can lead to the destruction of an aircraft. Typically aerospace engineers aim to avoid these vibrations altogether, however over recent decades there has been a growing trend to both model and explore these vibrations to either mitigate or account for them during flight. This paper explores both experimentally, using a wind tunnel model, and numerically, these limit cycle oscillations (vibrations) for a device that aims to reduce the overall weight of aircraft significantly.

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