Hypersonic flutter and flutter suppression system of a wind tunnel model

The aeroelastic behavior of a thin flat rudder model was numerically simulated and experimentally investigated in a hypersonic wind tunnel. In particular, a flutter suppression system taking advantage of collision within small gaps was proposed and a novel system for the flutter simulation of the whole nonlinear aeroelastic system including the flutter suppression system was developed. First, the critical flutter dynamic pressure of the rudder without the flutter suppression system was calculated with different methods. Then, the whole nonlinear aeroelastic system, including the flutter suppression system, was simulated to design the gap size. Finally, the flutter suppression system was experimentally validated in a hypersonic wind tunnel operating at Mach number 5. The typical phenomenon of Limit Cycle Oscillation (LCO) was observed, avoiding the structural failure of the model and the consistency between numerical and experimental results was demonstrated. The proposed suppression system can improve the design and reusability of test models of hypersonic flutter experiments. (C) 2019 Chinese Society of Aeronautics and Astronautics. Production and hosting by Elsevier Ltd.