Flutter is a dangerous phenomenon encountered in flexible structures subjected to aerodynamic forces. This includes aircraft, buildings and bridges. Flutter occurs as a result of interactions between aerodynamic, stiffness, and inertia forces on a structure. In an aircraft, as the speed of the flow increases, there may be a point at which the structural damping is insufficient to damp out the motion which is increasing due to aerodynamic energy being added to the structure. This vibration can cause structural failure, and therefore considering flutter characteristics is an essential part of designing an aircraft. Scientists and engineers studied flutter and developed theories and mathematical tools to analyze the phenomenon. Strip theory aerodynamics, beam structural models, unsteady lifting surface methods (e.g., Doublet-Lattice) and finite element models expanded analysis capabilities. Periodic Structures have been in the focus of research for their useful characteristics and ability to attenuate vibration in frequency bands called "stop-bands". A periodic structure consists of cells which differ in material or geometry. As vibration waves travel along the structure and face the cell boundaries, some waves pass and some are reflected back, which may cause destructive interference with the succeeding waves. This may reduce the vibration level of the structure, and hence improve its dynamic performance. In this paper, for the first time, we analyze the flutter characteristics of a wing with a periodic change in its sandwich construction. The new technique preserves the external geometry of the wing structure and depends on changing the material of the sandwich core. The periodic analysis and the vibration response characteristics of the model are investigated using a finite element model for the wing. Previous studies investigating the dynamic bending response of a periodic sandwich beam in the absence of flow have shown promising results.

The motion of propeller driven airplanes, flying at constant speed on ascending or descending helical trajectories is analyzed. The dynamical abilities of the airplane are shown to result in restrictions on the ranges of the geometrical parameters of the helical path. The physical quantities taken into account are the variation of air density with altitude, the airplane mass change due to fuel consumption, its load factor, its lift coefficient, and the thrust its engine can produce. Formulas are provided for determining all the airplane dynamical parameters on the trajectory. A procedure is proposed for the construction of tables from which the flyability of trajectories at a given angle of inclination and radius can be read, with the corresponding minimum and maximum speeds allowed, the final altitude reached and the amount of fuel burned. Sample calculations are shown for the Cessna 182, a Silver Fox like unmanned aerial vehicle, and the C-130 Hercules.

This paper presents the main outcomes of the preliminary development of the Anuloid, an innovative disk-shaped VTOL aircraft. The Anuloid has three main features: lift is provided by a ducted fan powered by a turboshaft; control capabilities and anti-torque are due to a system of fixed and movable surfaces that are placed in the circular internal duct and the bottom portion of the aircraft; the Coanda effect is exploited to enable the control capabilities of such surfaces. In this paper, results from CFD analyses and wind tunnel tests are presented. Horizontal and vertical flights were considered, including accelerated flight. Particular attention was paid to the experimental analysis of the Coanda effect via a reduced scale 3D printed model. The results suggest that the Coanda effect is continuously present at the lower surface of the Anuloid and may be exploited for the control of the aircraft. Also, very complex 3D flows may develop around the aircraft.

This paper presents the main outcomes of the preliminary development of the Anuloid, an innovative disk-shaped VTOL aircraft. The Anuloid has three main features: lift is provided by a ducted fan powered by a turboshaft; control capabilities and anti-torque are due to a system of fixed and movable surfaces that are placed in the circular internal duct and the bottom portion of the aircraft; the Coanda effect is exploited to enable the control capabilities of such surfaces. In this paper, results from flight mechanics are presented. The vertical flight dynamics were found to be desirable. In contrast, the horizontal flight dynamics of the aircraft shows both dynamic instability, and more importantly, insufficient pitch and roll control authority. Some recommendations and guidelines are then given aimed at the alleviation of such problems.

The problem of flow through the vent is formulated as an unsteady, nonlinear, ordinary differential equation and solved using Runge-Kutta method to obtain pressure inside payload faring. An inverse problem for prediction of the discharge coefficient is presented employing measured internal pressure of the payload fairing during the ascent phase of a satellite launch vehicle. A controlled random search method is used to estimate the discharge coefficient from the measured transient pressure history during the ascent period of the launch vehicle. The algorithm predicts the discharge coefficient stepwise with function of Mach number. The estimated values of the discharge coefficients are in good agreement with differential pressure measured during the flight of typical satellite launch vehicle.

The aim of the present work is to present a computational study of the non-linear aero-elastic behavior of a multi-layered Thermal Protection System (TPS). The severity of atmospheric re-entry conditions is due to the combination of high temperatures, high pressures and high velocities, and thus the aero-elastic behavior of flexible structures can be difficult to assess. In order to validate the specific computational model and the overall strategy for structural and aerodynamics analyses of flexible structures, the simplified TPS sample tested in the 8' High Temperature Tunnel (HTT) at NASA LaRC has been selected as a baseline for the validation of the present work. The von $K{\acute{a}}rm{\acute{a}}n^{\prime}s$ three dimensional large deflection theory for the structure and a hybrid Raleigh-Ritz-Galerkin approach, combined with the first order Piston Theory to describe the aerodynamic flow, have been used to derive the equations of motion. The paper shows that a good description of the physical behavior of the fabric is possible with the proposed approach. The model is further applied to investigate structural and aero-elastic influence of the number of the layers and the stitching pattern.

A method for decoupling reliability based design optimization problem into a set of deterministic optimization and performing a reliability analysis is described. The inner reliability analysis and the outer optimization are performed separately in a sequential manner. Since the outer optimizer must perform a large number of iterations to find the optimized shape and size of structure, the computational cost is very high. Therefore, during the course of this research, new multilevel reliability optimization methods are developed that divide the design domain into two sub-spaces to be employed in an iterative procedure: one of the shape design variables, and the other of the size design variables. In each iteration, the probability constraints are converted into equivalent deterministic constraints using reliability analysis and then implemented in the deterministic optimization problem. The framework is first tested on a short column with cross-sectional properties as design variables, the applied loads and the yield stress as random variables. In addition, two cases of curvilinearly stiffened panels subjected to uniform shear and compression in-plane loads, and two cases of curvilinearly stiffened panels subjected to shear and compression loads that vary in linear and quadratic manner are presented.

The main purpose of the paper is to analyze effect of geometrical parameters of the reentry capsules such as radius of the spherical cap, shoulder radius, back shell inclination angle and overall length on the flow field characteristics. The numerical simulation with viscous flow past ARD (Atmospheric Reentry Demonstrator), Soyuz (Russian) and OREX (Orbital Reentry EXperimental) reentry capsules for freestream Mach numbers range of 2.0-5.0 is carried out by solving time-dependent, axisymmetric, compressible laminar Navier-Stokes equations. These reentry capsules appear as bell, head light and saucer in shape. The flow field features around the reentry capsules such as bow shock wave, sonic line, expansion fan and recirculating flow region are well captured by the present numerical simulations. A low pressure is observed immediately downstream of the base region of the capsule which can be attributed to fill-up in the growing space between the shock wave and the reentry module. The back shell angle and the radius of the shoulder over the capsule are having a significant effect on the wall pressure distribution. The effects of geometrical parameters of the reentry capsules will useful input for the calculation of ballistic coefficient of the reentry module.