Experimental investigation on buffet load characteristics of a wide-body aircraft horizontal-tail in take-off configuration

Abstract Surface buffet load characteristics and structural response characteristics of the horizontal tail were measured and analyzed by installing a subminiature pulsating pressure sensor and root strain gauge on the horizontal tail surface of a rigid full model of a civil wide-body aircraft. The results show that, before buffeting onset, the vibration response of the horizontal tail structure is only affected by the incoming pulsating pressure, and the response frequency is near the natural frequency of the structure. The buffeting coefficient of the structure has a linear relationship with the incoming flow excitation. After buffeting onset, the buffeting load will propagate further along the chord direction of the horizontal tail, and the frequency range will also expand significantly, distributed in the wide frequency range of 20 Hz~1, 000 Hz and maintained at larger incidences.