Experimental Characterization of the Flow-Induced Flutter of a Suspended Elastic Membrane

Flow-induced flutter of elastic membranes has many applications in engineering, biology, and medicine; and recent advances in computational modeling are enabling the simulation of such problems in unprecedented detail. However, appropriate experiments that would allow comprehensive validation of such models are lacking. To fill this gap, low-Reynolds-number experiments were conducted on the flow-induced flutter of a suspended elastic membrane. This configuration has well-defined boundary conditions and exhibits a variety of flutter regimes, thereby making it a suitable case for validation. Silicon sheets of three different thicknesses are used as the material for the suspended membrane, and the other key variables in the study are the flow speed and the yaw angle of the membrane. The deflection and flutter motion of each membrane is measured using a high-speed imaging system. A variety of flutter regimes are observed for the parameters studied here, including nominally two-dimensional flutter as well as highly three-dimensional motion for nonzero yaw angles. Qualitative as well as quantitative features of the flutter are cataloged in order to provide a comprehensive dataset for validation.

弹性膜的流致颤振在工程、生物学和医学领域有诸多应用；计算建模的最新进展使得对这类问题能够进行前所未有的详细模拟。然而，缺乏能够对这类模型进行全面验证的合适实验。为填补这一空白，针对悬浮弹性膜的流致颤振进行了低雷诺数实验。这种配置具有明确的边界条件，并呈现出多种颤振模式，因此使其成为一个适合验证的案例。使用三种不同厚度的硅片作为悬浮膜的材料，研究中的其他关键变量是流速和膜的偏航角。使用高速成像系统测量每个膜的挠度和颤振运动。在此研究的参数下观察到多种颤振模式，包括名义上的二维颤振以及非零偏航角下的高度三维运动。对颤振的定性和定量特征进行了分类，以便为验证提供一个全面的数据集。