Flutter of Winged Reentry Space Vehicles Affected by an Elastic Attachment in Launching Configuration

Abstract

This paper reports the flutter investigation of a winged reentry space vehicle having rotational modes in dynamic deflection due to an elastic attachment between a vehicle and a booster rocket. The elastic rotational mode is taken into consideration as an elastic rolling mode or an elastic yawing mode. Flutter experiments have been conducted in a transonic wind tunnel. The doublet-point method (DPM) is used to calculate flutter boundaries for this model. It is shown that an elastic rolling mode may lower the critical speed of anti-symmetric mode flutter because its existence alters the natural vibration mode of anti-symmetric bending which causes flutter. On the other hand, a coupling between an elastic yawing mode and an anti-symmetric bending one becomes critical in the different model.