Nonlinear Dynamic Response Prediction of a Thin Panel in a Multi-Discipline Environment: Part II—Numerical Predictions

Hypersonic aircraft structures must operate in a complex loading environment, where the coupling of the aircraft structural response with the aerodynamics will lead to conditions involving rich nonlinear dynamics. The modeling of these fluid-thermal-structural interactions is complex and prohibitively expensive when high fidelity models are used (i.e., CFD and FEA). This aspect, and the lack of relevant flight-test and experimental data, have resulted in knowledge gaps, which have led to the design of overly-conservative structures in the past. Work at the Structural Sciences Center (SSC) of the USAF Research Laboratory has focused on addressing these knowledge gaps from a structures perspective. As discussed in Part I of this paper, 3 years ago the SSC began a series of wind-tunnel experiments to provide full-field experimental data for a clamped nominally flat panel exposed to supersonic flow. The present work will focus on numerical predictions of the panel dynamic response using a reduced order model (ROM) for the structural response and full-field measurement data to represent the loads on the panel.