Experimental Aeroelastic Investigation of an All-Movable Horizontal Tail Model with Bending and Torsion Free-Plays

In this study, an experimental investigation is performed on a scaled, all-movable horizontal tail to study the aeroelastic behaviors induced by multiple free-plays. The dynamic response in wind tunnel tests is measured by strain gauges, an accelerometer, and a binocular vision measurement system. The obtained results indicate that the present aeroelastic system exhibits highly nonlinear characteristics and undergoes two independent limit cycle oscillations (LCOs) induced by bending free-play and torsion free-play, respectively. Further, various parametric studies are conducted to evaluate the effects of the free-play angles, angle of attack, flow velocity, and gust excitation on the LCOs. It is found that the value of free-play angle has no significant effect on the critical flow velocity which leads to the occurrence of LCOs. The amplitude and frequency of LCOs increase with the increasing free-play angle and flow velocity. Moreover, the horizontal tail experiences high-order harmonic resonances when LCOs appear. Finally, the stability of limit cycles is analyzed based on the gust excitation experiment. Overall, compared to an all-movable horizontal tail with single free-play, the multiple free-plays system exhibits more complex dynamic behaviors. In this paper, the measured results of the scaled model, which has a similar mass distribution and stiffness distribution as actual aircraft, may be valuable for predicting such LCOs induced by multiple free-plays, and providing a reference for the design of all-movable horizontal tail to prevent LCOs.