Thomas Andrianne

Flutter and stall flutter of a rectangular wing in a wind tunnel

The aeroelastic behavior of a rectangular wing with pitch and plunge degrees of freedom was observed experimentally using pressure, acceleration, and particle image velocimetry measurements. The wing was set at different static angles of attack and wind-tunnel airspeeds. The wing’s dynamic behavior was governed by a twoparameter bifurcation from steady to limit cycle oscillations, with the two parameters being the airspeed and the static angle of attack. At the lowest static angle, the wing underwent a classical flutter phenomenon that was transformed into a supercriticalHopf bifurcation at higher angles. The latterwas combinedwith a fold bifurcation at intermediate angles of attack. All limit cycle oscillations observed were either low-amplitude oscillations with timevarying amplitude or high-amplitude oscillations with nearly steady amplitude. They were caused by two different types of dynamic stall phenomena. During low-amplitude limit cycle oscillations the periodically stalled flow covered only the rear part of the wing. During high-amplitude limit cycle oscillations, trailing-edge and leading-edge separation occurred. Trailing-edge separation was characterized by a significant amount of unsteadiness, varying visibly from cycle to cycle. The occurrence of leading-edge separation was muchmore regular and had the tendency to stabilize the amplitude of the limit cycle oscillation motion.

Wind tunnel testing of a VTOL MAV propeller in tilted operating mode

This paper presents experimental results of the full 3-axis force vector and 3-axis moment vector acting on a propeller, commonly used for a Vertical Take Off and Landing Micro Aerial Vehicle (VTOL MAV). Measurements were carried out in a wind tunnel using a high resolution 6-axis force/moment sensor embedded in a customized test rig at several wind speeds, propeller rotational speeds and angles of the propeller shaft with respect to the air stream. Results show strong moments acting on the propeller in forward flight and unstable conditions in descending flight. Power calculations reveal a decrease in power consumption during slow forward flight and how motor efficiency can be maximized.

Flow Visualization and Proper Orthogonal Decomposition of Aeroelastic Phenomena

The modal decomposition of unsteady flowfields was proposed in the 1990s by several authors, e.g. Hall (1994) or Dowell et al. (1998). Proper Orthogonal Decomposition (POD) is one method that can be used in order to perform this modal decomposition; it became popular for aerodynamics research in the 2000s, starting with Tang et al. (2001), although it was first proposed for use in fluid dynamics in the 1960s by Lumley (1967). The basic principle of POD is the creation of a mathematical model of an unsteady flow that decouples the spatial from the temporal variations. A 2D flowfield described by the horizontal velocity u(x, y, t) and the vertical flow velocity v(x, y, t) can thus be expressed as

Discrete Vortex Simulations of the torsional flutter oscillations of a 4:1 rectangular cylinder

This work presents aeroelastic simulations of a 2D bluff-body around its pitching degree of freedom. The numerical tool consists in an aerodynamic solver based on the Discrete Vortex Method (DVM), coupled with a linear structural model. The shape of the bluff-body is a sharp edged rectangular cylinder with a side ratio equal to 4. The numerical results are compared to the experimental measurements recently obtained by the authors. 8 The validation is carried out in three steps: first the frequency content of the flow-field in the wake of the static body is investigated. Then the simulated unsteady flow-field around the imposed pitching motion of the body is compared to experimental flow visualizations. This comparison is performed using Proper Orthogonal Decomposition (POD). Finally, the simulation of the global aeroelastic behaviour, based on the coupling of the DVM code to the structural model of the pitching degree of freedom is carried out and the results are compared to measured aeroelastic responses.. Very good agreements are found between numerical and experimental results, demonstrating the capabilities of the numerical tool to simulate complex unsteady aerodynamics around an oscillating bluff-body.

A Cross-Validation Approach to Approximate Basis Function Selection of the Stall Flutter Response of a Rectangular Wing in a Wind Tunnel

The stall flutter response of a rectangular wing in a low speed wind tunnel is modelled using a nonlinear difference equation description. Static and dynamic tests are used to select a suitable model structure and basis function. Bifurcation criteria such as the Hopf condition and vibration amplitude variation with airspeed were used to ensure the model was representative of experimentally measured stall flutter phenomena. Dynamic test data were used to estimate model parameters and estimate an approximate basis function.