Experimental investigation on the synchronization characteristics of a pitch-plunge aeroelastic system exhibiting stall flutter

This study focuses on characterizing the bifurcation scenario and the underlying synchrony behavior in a nonlinear aeroelastic system under deterministic as well as stochastic inflow conditions. Wind tunnel experiments are carried out for a canonical pitch-plunge aeroelastic system subjected to dynamic stall conditions. The system is observed to undergo a subcritical Hopf bifurcation, giving way to large-amplitude limit cycle oscillations (LCOs) in the stall flutter regime under the deterministic flow conditions. At this condition, we observe intermittent phase synchronization between pitch and plunge modes near the fold point, whereas synchronization via phase trapping is observed near the Hopf point. Repeating the experiments under stochastic inflow conditions, we observe two different aeroelastic responses: low amplitude noise-induced random oscillations (NIROs) and high-amplitude random LCOs (RLCOs) during stall flutter. The present study shows asynchrony between pitch and plunge modes in the NIRO regime. At the onset of RLCOs, asynchrony persists even though the relative phase distribution changes. With further increase in the flow velocity, we observe intermittent phase synchronization in the flutter regime. To the best of the authors' knowledge, this is the first study reporting the experimental evidence of phase synchronization between pitch and plunge modes of an aeroelastic system, which is of great interest to the nonlinear dynamics community. Furthermore, given the ubiquitous presence of stall behavior and stochasticity in a variety of engineering systems, such as wind turbine blades, helicopter blades, and unmanned aerial vehicles, the present findings will be directly beneficial for the efficient design of futuristic aeroelastic systems.