Flutter analysis of an airfoil with multiple nonlinearities and uncertainties

An original method for calculating the limit cycle oscillations of nonlinear aero-elastic system is presented. The problem of determining the maximum vibration amplitude of limit cycle is transformed into a nonlinear optimization problem. The harmonic balance method and the Floquet theory are selected to construct the general nonlinear equality and inequality constraints. The resulting constrained maximization problem is then solved by using the MultiStart algorithm. Finally, the proposed approach is validated and used to analyse the limit cycle oscillations of an airfoil with multiple nonlinearities and uncertainties. Numerical examples show that the coexistence of multiple nonlinearities may lead to low amplitude limit cycle oscillation.