Survey of Active Aeroelastic Control for Flutter Suppression

Aeroelastic flutter is the potentially destructive aerodynamic vibration of an elastic body in an air-stream. The interactions of aerodynamic, inertial and structural forces cause coupled torsional and bending modes on the aircraft, which can exceed its structural strength. An aircraft’s wing, tail and control surfaces are at the greatest risk of experiencing flutter. The goal of a flutter suppression system is to clear the flight envelope from flutter. This paper provides an overview regarding the current state-of-the-art hardware, techniques and analytical methods used in implementing Active Aeroelastic Control (AAC) in the design of a flutter suppression system.