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Flow physics and dynamics of flow-induced pitch oscillations of an airfoil

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 August 2019

Karthik Menon Open the ORCID record for Karthik Menon [Opens in a new window]  and
Rajat Mittal Open the ORCID record for Rajat Mittal [Opens in a new window]
Karthik Menon
Affiliation:
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD 21218, USA
Rajat Mittal*
Affiliation:
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD 21218, USA
*
†Email address for correspondence: mittal@jhu.edu
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Abstract

We conduct a computational study of flow-induced pitch oscillations of a rigid airfoil at a chord-based Reynolds number of 1000. A sharp-interface immersed boundary method is used to simulate two-dimensional incompressible flow, and this is coupled with the equations for a rigid foil supported at the elastic axis with a linear torsional spring. We explore the effect of spring stiffness, equilibrium angle-of-attack and elastic-axis location on the onset of flutter, and the analysis of the simulation data provides insights into the time scales and mechanisms that drive the onset and dynamics of flutter. The dynamics of this configuration includes complex phenomena such as bifurcations, non-monotonic saturation amplitudes, hysteresis and non-stationary limit-cycle oscillations. We show the utility of ‘maps’ of energy exchange between the flow and the airfoil system, as a way to understand, and even predict, this complex behaviour.

JFM classification

Vortex Flows: Vortex shedding
Type
JFM Papers
Information
Journal of Fluid Mechanics , Volume 877 , 25 October 2019 , pp. 582 - 613
Copyright
© 2019 Cambridge University Press 

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