On attached masses of panels oscillating in incompressible medium

Abstract

The paper discusses small oscillations of a panel in an incompressible medium. Air can be considered an incompressible medium during modal tests of solar array panels for spacecraft deployed on the ground in a lab environment. A panel is represented as a two-sided boundary surface. Conditions are determined for applicability of the potential motion of the medium. Calculation of the attached mass is reduced to the solution of the Neumann boundary value problem. To solve the boundary value problem, the method of boundary elements is used in the piecewise constant approximation variant, which provides a solution of the hypersingular boundary integral equation. Numerical solutions are obtained for the three fundamental modes of rectangular panels. The obtained numerical values are refined using non-linear Shanks transformation. Dependence of attached mass on panel elongation and the amount of the gap between its fragments is studied. For any in-plane oscillation mode of a panel fragment, the attached mass is determined using the principle of linear superposition. An estimate is given of the effect of the distance from the panel to the wall on the attached mass value. Key words: oscillations, incompressible medium, air, attached mass, rectangular panels, boundary elements method.