Stall Flutter Measurements on a Rectangular Wing

The continuous development of wind turbine technology gradually leads to larger, more flexible blades with increasing aspect ratios and high tip speeds, while in everyday operation or extreme cases the blades experience stalled flow conditions. These aforementioned facts create the need for further study and physical understanding of stall induced vibrations – stall flutter. In this context an aeroelastic setup was constructed at the NTUA subsonic wind tunnel with a rigid rectangular wing (500 mm × 1400 mm) of a NACA 64-418 airfoil supported by a spring system that enables pitching and plunging motions. The elastic axis of the wing is located 35% of the chord far from the leading edge while its center of mass at 46%. Increasing the free stream velocity (up to Re = 670 000) under various initial static angles of attack, the wing was set at fluid induced oscillations (pitching and plunging). The response of the wing under these conditions was recorded employing two accelerometers and two wire sensors for both the rotational and linear wing displacements. At the same time, in the middle of the wing span thirty (30) fast responsive pressure transducers measured the pressure distribution along the chord, while strain gauges attached to the wing rotating shaft measured the applied unsteady aerodynamic loading. Based on the above simultaneously measured quantities various aspects of the aeroelastic instability of the examined wing were revealed.