Aeroelastic Behavior of 3D-Printed Tapered Polylactic Acid Plates Under Subsonic Flow Conditions

This research investigates the aeroelastic stability of tapered polylactic acid (PLA) plates produced through fused deposition modeling (FDM) under low-Mach-number airflow conditions. While the static properties of 3D-printed structural components for drones, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), and unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) have been thoroughly explored, their dynamic behavior, especially flutter, has been less studied. This study applies a binary flutter model to thin PLA plates, and the analytically predicted flutter speeds are compared with experimental data from wind-tunnel tests. The strong agreement between theoretical predictions and experimental results confirms the validity of the proposed dynamic aeroelastic analysis approach. This methodology provides valuable insights into designing aerodynamic lifting and stabilizing surfaces for UAS applications.