Transient Growth before Coupled-Mode Flutter

P. J. Schmid, E. De Langre

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

24 Scopus citations

Abstract

Transient growth of energy is known to occur even in stable dynamical systems due to the non-normality of the underlying linear operator. This has been the object of growing attention in the field of hydrodynamic stability, where linearly stable flows may be found to be strongly nonlinearly unstable as a consequence of transient growth. We apply these concepts to the generic case of coupled-mode flutter, which is a mechanism with important applications in the field of fluid-structure interactions. Using numerical and analytical approaches on a simple system with two degrees-of-freedom and antisymmetric coupling we show that the energy of such a system may grow by a factor of more than 10, before the threshold of coupled-mode flutter is crossed. This growth is a simple consequence of the nonorthogonality of modes arising from the nonconservative forces. These general results are then applied to three cases in the field of flow-induced vibrations: (a) panel flutter (two-degrees-of-freedom model, as used by Dowell) (b) follower force (two-degrees-of-freedom model, as used by Bamberger) and (c) fluid-conveying pipes (two-degree-of-freedom model, as used by Benjamin and Païdoussis) for different mass ratios. For these three cases we show that the magnitude of transient growth of mechanical energy before the onset of coupled-mode flutter is substantial enough to cause a significant discrepancy between the apparent threshold of instability and the one predicted by linear stability theory.
Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)894-901
Number of pages8
JournalJournal of Applied Mechanics, Transactions ASME
Volume70
Issue number6
DOIs
StatePublished - Nov 1 2003
Externally publishedYes

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Mechanics of Materials
  • Computational Mechanics

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