Experimental investigations on flow induced vibration of an externally excited flexible plate

Flow-induced vibration of a harmonically actuated flexible plate in the wake of an upstream bluff body is experimentally investigated. The experiments are performed in an open-ended wind tunnel. A flexible plate trailing a bluff body is under fluid induced excitation due to the flowing fluid. The additional external excitation to the trailing plate is applied using an electro-magnetic exciter. The frequency and amplitude of the external harmonic excitation are selected as variable parameters in the experiments and their effect on the plate vibration and is investigated. To know the nature of acoustic pressure wave generated from the vibrating system, near-field acoustic pressure is also measured. A laser vibrometer, a pressure microphone and a high-speed camera are employed to measure the plate vibration, pressure signal, and instantaneous images of the plate motion respectively. The results obtained indicate that the dynamics of the plate is influenced by both the flow-induced excitation and external harmonic excitation. When frequency of the two excitations is close enough, a large vibration level and a high tonal sound pressure are observed. At higher amplitude of external excitation, the frequency component corresponding to the flow-induced excitation is found to reduce significantly in the frequency spectrum of the vibration signal. It is observed that, for certain range of excitation frequency, the plate vibration first reduces, reaches a minimum value and then increases with increase in the level of external excitation. A fair qualitative agreement of the experimental results with numerical simulation result of the past study has been noted. In addition to the experiments, the role of phase difference between the flow induced excitation generated from the front obstacle and externally applied harmonic excitation is investigated through numerical simulations. The result obtained reveals that the final steady state vibration of the coupled system is independent of the initial phase difference between the two excitations. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.