The Effect of Circumferential Aerodynamic Detuning on Coupled Bending-Torsion Unstalled Supersonic Flutter

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A mathematical model is developed to predict the enhanced coupled bending-torsion unstalled supersonic flutter stability due to alternate circumferential spacing aerodynamic detuning of a turbomachine rotor. The translational and torsional unsteady aerodynamic coefficients are developed in terms of influence coefficients, with the coupled bending-torsion stability analysis developed by considering the coupled equations of motion together with the unsteady aerodynamic loading. The effect of this aerodynamic detuning on coupled bending-torsion unstalled supersonic flutter as well as the verification of the modeling are then demonstrated by considering an unstable twelve-bladed rotor, with Verdon’s uniformly spaced Cascade B flow geometry as a baseline. It was found that with the elastic axis and center of gravity at or forward of the airfoil midchord, 10 percent aerodynamic detuning results in a lower critical reduced frequency value as compared to the baseline rotor, thereby demonstrating the aerodynamic detuning stability enhancement. However, with the elastic axis and center of gravity at 60 percent of the chord, this type of aerodynamic detuning has a minimal effect on stability. For both uniform and nonuniform circumferentially spaced rotors, a single degree of freedom torsion mode analysis was shown to be appropriate for values of the bending-torsion natural frequency ratio lower than 0.6 and higher than 1.2. However, for values of this natural frequency ratio between 0.6 and 1.2, a coupled flutter stability analysis is required. When the elastic axis and center of gravity are not coincident, the effect of detuning on cascade stability was found to be very sensitive to the location of the center of gravity with respect to the elastic axis. In addition, it was determined that when the center of gravity was forward of an elastic axis located at midchord, a single degree of freedom torsion model did not accurately predict cascade stability.