Abstract
To identify aeroelastic characteristics of wings with double-folding mechanism, aeroelastic analyses are performed. There are four wing models which consist of one linear model and three nonlinear models. The nonlinear models have one or two freeplay nonlinearties. The describing function method is used to approximately examine nonlinear effects. The aeroelastic module in MSC/NASTRAN is used to study the aeroelastic characteristics of the considered wing models. The effects of the folding mechanism and amplitude ratio are examined. As the amplitude ratio increases, the flutter speeds approach to those of the wing model with only one nonlinearity. The numerical results show that the flutter speeds of the wings with double-folding mechanism can be lower or higher than those of the wing model with only one folding mechanism depending upon the direction of the second folding mechanism.
