In the present work, a numerical technique for evaluating the subsonic flutter of an elastic swept back plate representing an aircraft wing is discussed. The technique solves for the response in the time domain by considering the air (aerodynamic model) and wing (structural model) as elements of a single dynamical system. The aerodynamic model is a general unsteady vortex lattice method whereas the structural model is based on finite element method (FEM). A suitable coupling algorithm is developed that maps the data between the FEM grids and the aerodynamic panels. The aerodynamic model and the structural model are validated with the results available in the literature. Finally the coupled algorithm is used to study the flutter boundary of the elastic plate under subsonic flow conditions.

Keywords: Fluid structure interaction, FEM, Flutter, Unsteady vortex lattice method.