Enhancement of aeroelastic performance of a smart delaminated composite plate under hygrothermal environment

In the present article, the effect of delamination on flutter performance of a smart laminated composite wing-like plate structure under hygrothermal environment has been investigated. A FE model for a laminated composite plate with centrally located mid-plane square delamination along with an AFC actuator at the top of the laminate is developed in MATLAB. Subsequently, the aerodynamic model is developed in NASTRAN and coupled with structural modal parameters through the surface spline technique using the Direct Matrix Abstraction Programming (DMAP). The effect of delamination and its size on aemelastic performance has been analyzed under adverse moisture level and temperature conditions. It has been seen that the aeroelastic performance of the plate gets considerably deteriorated due to the presence of delamination under adverse hygrothermal circumstances. Voltage is applied to the AFC actuator and it is observed that there is a surge in the stiffness of structure along with the escalation of aeroelastic performances.