Limit cycle oscillations of cantilever rectangular flat plates in a wind tunnel

A closed form state-space model of the nonlinear aeroelastic response of thin cantilevered flat plates is derived using a combination of Von Karman thin plate theory and a linearized continuous time vortex lattice aerodynamic model. The modal-based model is solved for the amplitude and period of the limit cycles of the flat plates using numerical continuation. The resulting predictions are compared to experimental data obtained from identical flat plates in the wind tunnel. It is shown that the aeroelastic model predicts the linear flutter conditions and nonlinear response of the plates with reasonable accuracy, although the predicted limit cycle amplitude variation with airspeed is different to the one measured experimentally due to unmodelled physics.