Planar elastic vibrators in a uniform flow field with broadband mechanical excitations

Abstract

Flow‐induced forces on structures can significantly affect their dynamic response. A new method is presented to evaluate the dynamic response of planar elastic vibrators in uniform fluid flow fields to broadband mechanical excitations. The approach is based on the use of in vacuo eigenfunction expansion to solve the fluid‐loaded problem. The time‐dependent coefficients of the modal expansion for the velocity are shown to satisfy a set of coupled convolution integral equations which involve mode and Mach number‐dependent impulse responses. Pressures in the field are simply expressed as a summation of uncoupled convolution integrals. Numerical results are presented to illustrate the effects of Mach number on the transient response of a plate subjected to a broadband mechanical excitation. [Work supported by ONR.]