State-of-the-art aeroelastic design and analysis methods are very well capable of capturing aeroelastic instabilities (i.e. divergence, flutter, etc.). However, they come short in illuminating the reasons behind the occurrence of the instability. In this research, we invoke the constructal law of nature to discover the main cause of the variation in the flutter speed for inflected aircraft wings. This law considers the design as a Physics phenomenon and uses an evolutionary flow principle to explain and predict the occurrence of energy flow configurations (i.e., the flow of stresses through the structure). In this study, a flying wing aircraft with different flap-wise wing inflection is considered. The sectional wing properties for curved and uncurved wing configurations are obtained from Variational Asymptotic Beam Sections (VABS). NATASHA (Nonlinear Aeroelastic Trim And Stability of HALE Aircraft) conducts aeroelastic stability analyses of the aircraft. Finally, VABS recovers the flow of stresses through the wings. The stability and stress analyses provide insight into the changes in the flow of stresses as the geometry changes. Our structural analyses reveal that wing inflection has the potential to smoothen the flow of stresses. Furthermore, the results show that the inflected configuration that provides easier access to the flow of stresses and has less stress strangulation is the one that is most stable.
