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Old 21 June 2009, 07:54 AM   #256 (permalink)
hank jarrett
Scout Pilot
 
Join Date: Mar 2005
Location: Virginia Beach VA
Posts: 413
 
Had to happen. NASTRAN has even invaded WW-1 aeroplanes! I just can't escape it!
The nice thing about NASTRAN is the parts don't break. Imagine while you watch that video how much force it takes to bend that fin that way. The loads built up are HUGE! That is why flutter failures are often mistaken for overload. It only cycled once and the part failed.
A good way to see the forcing functions that cause flutter is to watch a flag wave. What you are seeing is 2nd, 3ed and sometimes even higher degree flutter in a VERY flexible structure (the cloth in the flag). Imagine the air hitting the flag pole and a vortex rolling off one side. As the vortex sheds on one side of the flag it deflects the flag so that the air on the other side is influence to shed a vortex there. The cycle repeats back and forth causing the familiar "flutter" of the flag. If you load all the parameters for a flag and pole in NASTRAN it gives back all the movements you have seen so many times at ball games. Using the variables in the computer program will even let you see the little "snaps" at the end of the flag that overload the weave of and cause it to tear along the stripes and the trailing edge.
You can use NASTRAN to design a flag that will last longer in different winds (but some of them are pretty expensive fixes and one makes the flag flutter strange and just doesn't look pretty.
Hank
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