Numerical simulation on a limit cycle oscillation of a rectangular sheet in three-dimensional flow: influence of vortex element model on post-critical behavior

The flutter of thin elastic plates (sheets) in a fluid flow is an interesting nonlinear problem, as well as an important engineering problem, because the sheets are used in many industrial applications. A detailed understanding of flutter characteristics and sustaining mechanism of limit cycle oscillation (LCO) is important to suppress the flutter. In this study, a nonlinear analysis on a LCO of rectangular sheets in a three-dimensional uniform fluid flow using the nonlinear beam model and vortex-lattice method is performed. The influence of the vortex element model of the vortex-lattice method on the post-critical behavior is investigated in detail. Moreover, fluid-structure interaction simulations are performed using computational fluid dynamics and computational structural dynamics to examine the flow field and pressure distributions acting on a sheet surface in detail. It is found that flow separation around the side edges of a fluttering sheet can affect the post-critical behavior.

Automated summary

This study investigates the flutter of thin elastic plates in fluid flow and explores the influence of flow separation on the post-critical behavior of fluttering sheets.