Uncertainty quantification in aeroelastic composite structures using lamination parameters

An approach for modelling the aeroelastic response of composite laminate structures subject to uncertainty in the ply orientations is introduced. An aeroelastic model is constructed using the Rayleigh-Ritz technique coupled with strip theory aerodynamics. Lamination parameters are used to represent uncertainties in composite layup, and are propagated through the aeroelastic model using Polynomial Chaos Expansion (PCE). The lamination parameter Probability Density Functions (PDFs) are first de-correlated using the Rosenblatt transformation. The use of lamination parameters keeps the dimension of the problem low for any symmetric composite laminate with any number of plies. Results are presented for a number of example laminates. The PCE technique was able to accurately emulate the response PDF with an order of magnitude saving in computational effort compared to the baseline MCS results.