Hi,
I'm doing a quasi-static wing flutter analysis.
I annotated the attached worksheet a bit but the basic idea goes like this:
My objective is to find a critical value for k and X as follows:
A, B, D and E are functions of k and X.
They are coefficients to a series of two equations such that:
A*h + B*j = 0
D*h + E*j = 0
where h and j represent another function (not shown in worksheet) - h and j both > 0.
Thus for a solution the determinant of matrix:
A | B |
D | E |
must = 0. This is where things get a bit complicated.
The suggested approach here is an excel job of many columns and some linear interpolation (groan):
Set k = some initial guess (2)
Calculate numerical values of those coefficients A, B, D and E in terms of X
Create two equations from the determinant = 0 condition - real and imaginary parts.
Solve to find X which typically has two real solutions and one imaginary (though could also be three imaginary potentially).
(Effectively) repeat for other values of k using a guess-and-correct approach until a critical condition is obtained.
The critical condition I am interested in is when either real solution of X is equal to the imaginary solution.
(Physically, this relates to a condition for the wing where system damping is equal to aerodynamic agitation, the critical point at which wing "flutter" would begin.)
My effort in Mathcad is as follows:
Find the determinant
Find the coefficients of the determinant expressed wrt X
Use polyroots to find the two real and imaginary roots seperately - these come out correct for my initial "guess" of k=2
"Given Real = Imag, Find(x,K)"
Correct values for this case should come out at Xcrit = 1.149 and kcrit = 0.274 (though thiese results invovled some manual linear interpolation - absolutely though 0.27 < kcrit <0.275.
Note that using Minerr gives a k value of 0.266 (which is close but wrong) but doesn't solve at all for X...
Solved! Go to Solution.
All you need is the condition that the determinant of the matrix must be zero.
All you need is the condition that the determinant of the matrix must be zero.
Oh wow, that was spectacularly obvious.
Very much appreciated indeed!