Aeroelastic Stability Analysis of a Wing-Propeller System Including Aerodynamic Interference Effects

This paper investigates the aeroelastic stability of a finite wing with a rotating propeller, focusing on the influence of aerodynamic interference effects. The wing structural dynamics are modeled using linear Euler-Bernoulli beam finite elements, while the propeller is represented using Reed’s two-degree-of-freedom model. An initial analysis without aerodynamic interference effects is conducted by computing the wing aerodynamic loads using the finite-state model of Peters and coworkers combined with strip theory, and the propeller aerodynamic loads using the Houbolt and Reed approach. Aerodynamic interference effects are captured by coupling the structural dynamics models of both the wing and propeller with the unsteady vortex-lattice method. The isolated wing and propeller models are verified individually before analyzing the coupled system. The coupled model is also verified against reference solutions without aerodynamic interference effects. The examined wing-propeller configuration exhibits wing flutter as the primary dynamic instability, whereas whirl flutter does not occur in the examined flow speed range. Three-dimensional aerodynamic effects increase the flutter speed by stabilizing the critical mode. Aerodynamic interference effects slightly destabilize the system, as found for other wing-propeller configurations analyzed in previous work using the viscousvortex particle method. The results demonstrate the viability of the unsteady vortex-lattice method as an aerodynamic modeling approach for capturing aerodynamic interference effects in wing-propeller aeroelastic stability analysis, paving the way for future studies.