A Modified Incremental Harmonic Balance Method for 2-DOF Airfoil Aeroelastic Systems with Nonsmooth Structural Nonlinearities

A modified incremental harmonic balance method is presented to analyze the aeroelastic responses of a 2-DOF airfoil aeroelastic system with a nonsmooth structural nonlinearity. The current method, which combines the traditional incremental harmonic balance method and a fast Fourier transform, can be used to obtain the higher-order approximate solution for the aeroelastic responses of a 2-DOF airfoil aeroelastic system with a nonsmooth structural nonlinearity using significantly fewer linearized algebraic equations than the traditional method, and the dominant frequency components of the response can be obtained by a fast Fourier transform of the numerical solution. Thus, periodic solutions can be obtained, and the calculation process can be simplified. Furthermore, the nonsmooth nonlinearity was expanded into a Fourier series. The procedures of the modified incremental harmonic balance method were demonstrated using systems with hysteresis and free play nonlinearities. The modified incremental harmonic balance method was validated by comparing with the numerical solutions. The effect of the number of harmonics on the solution precision as well as the effect of the free-play and stiffness ratio on the response amplitude is discussed.