STRUCTURAL DESIGN AND FLUTTER ANALYSIS OF SWEPT BAFFLED INFLATABLE WING

Inflatable wing is an inflatable membrane structure applied to the aerodynamic surface of aircraft which has unique advantages. It is a special structure with promising benefits for application of small aircraft platforms with limited volume because of the characteristics like light weight, small storage volume and rapid deployment. However, the rippled surface and stereotyped structural configuration limit the performance of traditional baffled inflatable wings. Based on the combination of traditional structure and aeroelastic tailoring design, a design method of a new inflatable wing with swept arranged inflatable beams named swept baffled inflatable wing is proposed to realize the purposeful design on shape and stiffness distribution for improving the aerodynamic and aeroelastic performance. Geometric design method of swept baffled inflatable wing is discussed. On this basis, the aerodynamic characteristics are compared and analyzed by computational fluid dynamics method, the wet mode is analyzed with considering the influence of air and the flutter characteristics are analyzed and compared by frequency domain method. The results show that the swept baffled structure can improve the lift drag ratio and delay the classical flutter, so as significantly improve the aerodynamic and aeroelastic performance of the inflatable wing. Works in this paper are of positive significance for the design and application of inflatable winged aircraft.