2023 journal article

Fluid structure interactions generated by an oblique shock impinging on a thin elastic panel

JOURNAL OF FLUIDS AND STRUCTURES, 119.

By: S. Varigonda n & V. Narayanaswamy n

author keywords: Shock boundary layer interactions; Fluid structure interactions; Supersonic flows; Pressure sensitive paints; Multivariate imaging; Weak coupling
Source: Web Of Science
Added: June 12, 2023

The flow structure coupling generated by an impinging shock boundary layer interactions (SBLI) flowfield over a rectangular panel is investigated. The impinging oblique shock is generated by an 8° shock generator placed incident to a Mach 2.5 flow. The shock strength is large enough to generate a mean separation that is nearly two-dimensional over the panel span. The panel is configured such that the panel oscillation amplitude is much smaller than the panel and incoming boundary layer thicknesses. This resulted in a weak coupling between the flowfield and structural response, and forms a relatively simpler configuration to study. Two multivariate measurement campaigns are performed to capture the mean and dynamic flowfield and panel response. The first campaign simultaneously measures the 2D panel surface pressure field, panel center-span deflection, and off-body velocity field at 10 Hz. The second campaign measures simultaneously the 2D panel surface pressure field and panel strain at two mid-span locations at 10 kHz. The acquisition rate is sufficient to resolve at least the first seven panel elastic models. These measurements provide comprehensive information about the fluid structure interaction (FSI) phenomenon from both aerodynamics and structural dynamics perspectives. Summarily, with the weak flow/structure interactions implemented in this study, there is no change in the mean separation size. However, the pressure fluctuations beneath the SBLI unit exhibit discrete elevations in the vicinity of different panel resonance mode frequencies. The greatest elevation pressure PSD occurs at the panel modes that overlaps with the separation bubble pulsation frequency band. Detailed coherence maps at and away from panel elastic modes and conditional statistics reveal critical insights into the mechanisms that cause the strengthening of the pressure fluctuations due to flow/structure coupling. It was found that the acoustic forcing by the cavity resonance has an important contribution to the dynamics of the surface pressure and panel oscillations.