The effect of wing-tailplane aerodynamic interaction on tail flutter

Abstract

When aerodynamic coefficients are calculated for tailplane flutter calculations it is usual to neglect the aerodynamic effect on the tailplane of the disturbance due to the wing and to assume that the tailplane oscillates in a steady stream. In this report a two-dimensional theory, which includes the effect of the wing-tailplane aerodynamic interaction, is developed for any wing and tailplane in the same horizontal plane. To represent this effect the standard derivatives are modified and additional derivatives are introduced. Calculations for a particular system show that the change in the standard derivatives is small but that the additional derivatives are comparable in size with the standard derivatives. The additional derivatives are used to investigate the effect of the wing motion on tailplane-elevator flutter, and it is shown that the aerodynamic interaction has little effect on the flutter of the binary system considered.