Dynamic responses of flexible wing panels with random loads

The concept of flexible morphing wings is currently a research hotspot due to a future application. The key mechanism to realize this concept lies in flexible composite laminated panels, making a comprehensive dynamic analysis of such structures crucial. However, mechanisms of metastable chaos remain poorly understood, and the impact of stochastic environmental factors on flexible panels is often neglected. To address these issues, this paper establishes a model of a flexible wing panel under stochastic loads and presents dynamic analysis theoretically and numerically. Firstly, global dynamics like bifurcation reveal that the system undergoes a Hopf bifurcation at specific parameters, giving rise to a limit cycle. Subsequently, the parameter regions for the emergence of both metastability and metastable chaos are identified. Furthermore, the mechanism of metastable dynamic responses under stochastic excitation is investigated through numerical simulations. The stationary probability density function is employed to detect random switching between different states and metastable stochastic vibrations. The influence of random loads on the dynamic response of the panel is quantitatively analyzed using metrics such as spectral entropy. The findings provide a theoretical explanation for the metastable chaos phenomenon and offer constructive guidance for the design of flexible morphing structures.