This work explores the use of functionally graded materials for the aeroelastic tailoring of a metallic cantilevered plate-like wing. Pareto trade-off curves between dynamic stability (flutter) and static aeroelastic stresses are obtained for a variety of grading strategies. A key comparison is between the effectiveness of material grading, geometric grading (i.e., plate thickness variations), and using both simultaneously. The introduction of material grading does, in some cases, improve the aeroelastic performance. This improvement, and the physical mechanism upon which it is based, depends on numerous factors: the two sets of metallic material parameters used for grading, the sweep of the plate, the aspect ratio of the plate, and whether the material is graded continuously or discretely.
Nomenclature[ ] = aerodynamic influence coefficients = reference length = force vector due to angle of attack = failure metric = damping = imaginary number = reduced frequency [ ] = stiffness matrix , = continuous and discrete material fractions , = wing mass and target wing mass [ ] = mass matrix = aeroelastic eigenvalue = dynamic pressure = static solution vector = critical speed , = flutter and divergence speeds = aeroelastic eigenvector 1 Research Scholar, peter.d.dunning@nasa.gov, AIAA Member. 2 Research Aerospace Engineer, Aeroelasticity Branch, bret.k.stanford@nasa.gov, AIAA Member. 3 Senior Lecturer, Department of Mechanical Engineering, h.a.kim@bath.ac.uk, AIAA Senior Member. 4 Research Engineer, Advanced Materials and Processing Branch, christine.v.jutte@nasa.gov. Downloaded by CORNELL UNIVERSITY on July 29, 2015 | http://arc.aiaa.org | This material is declared a work of the U.S. Government and is not subject to copyright protection in the United States. AIAA SciTech 2 = flow speed = flow density = angular frequency [ ] = modal matrix , = von Mises and yield stress