Vibration and Transonic Flutter Analysis for F-16 Stores Configuration Clearance

This paper supports quick and accurate prediction of the flutter onset speed of an F-16 Block 40/50 configured with external stores in the transonic flight regime. Current flutter prediction methods are reviewed and hypothesized mechanisms for limit cycle oscillation (LCO) are summarized. New efforts to correlate transonic small disturbance (TSD) theory methods with flight tests are outlined. Vibration analysis and structural optimization of an F-16 finite element model were used to match ground vibration testing results. Frequency tuning was found to be critical for accurate flutter speed predictions. Sensitivity to nonlinear aerodynamic effects and store modeling was examined.