Aeroelastic analysis and nonlinear dynamics of an elastically mounted wing

The response of an elastically mounted wing that is free to plunge and pitch, supported by nonlinear translational and torsional springs, and interacting with an incoming stream is analyzed. A tightly coupled model of the wing flow interaction is developed. A three-dimensional code based on the unsteady vortex lattice method is used for the prediction of the unsteady aerodynamic loads. The response of the wing shows a sequence of static and dynamic bifurcations and chaotic motions when increasing the flow speed. Pairs of stable solutions are observed over the different response regimes. The effects of the gust and structural nonlinearity on the wing's response are also investigated. The results show that gust may lead to jumps between the pairs of solutions for static and dynamic equilibrium responses without impacting the boundaries of the different response regimes. As for the effect of the structural nonlinearity, increasing the nonlinear coefficient of the stiffness of the torsional spring yields lower static deflections and amplitudes of the limit cycle oscillations.     

An analytical and experimental investigation into limit-cycle oscillations of an aeroelastic system

We perform an analytical and experimental investigation into the dynamics of an aeroelastic system consisting of a plunging and pitching rigid airfoil supported by a linear spring in the plunge degree of freedom and a nonlinear spring in the pitch degree of freedom. The experimental results show that the onset of flutter takes place at a speed smaller than the one predicted by a quasi-steady aerodynamic approximation. On the other hand, the unsteady representation of the aerodynamic loads accurately predicts the experimental value. The linear analysis details the difference in both formulation and provides an explanation for this difference. Nonlinear analysis is then performed to identify the nonlinear coefficients of the pitch spring. The normal form of the Hopf bifurcation is then derived to characterize the type of instability. It is demonstrated that the instability of the considered aeroelastic system is supercritical as observed in the experiments.     

Insights on the continuous representations of piecewise-smooth nonlinear systems: limits of applicability and effectiveness

Nonlinear Dynamics - It is known that three-parameter representations of spatial rotation suffer from kinematic singularities. Euler parameters (unit quaternions) are a four-parameter solution for...     

Characteristics and comparative analysis of piezoelectric-electromagnetic energy harvesters from vortex-induced oscillations

Nonlinear Dynamics - The vortex-induced vibrations of a circular cylinder attached as a tip mass at the end of a cantilever beam are investigated for hybrid energy harvesting using two different...     

Weighted Function Spaces and Dunkl Transform

We introduce first weighted function spaces on ${\mathbb{R}^d}$ using the Dunkl convolution that we call Besov-Dunkl spaces. We provide characterizations of these spaces by decomposition of functions. Next we obtain in the real line and in radial case on ${\mathbb{R}^d}$ weighted L ^p -estimates of the Dunkl transform of a function in terms of an integral modulus of continuity which gives a quantitative form of the Riemann-Lebesgue lemma. Finally, we show in both cases that the Dunkl transform of a function is in L ¹ when this function belongs to a suitable Besov-Dunkl space.     

Global nonlinear distributed-parameter model of parametrically excited piezoelectric energy harvesters

A global nonlinear distributed-parameter model for a piezoelectric energy harvester under parametric excitation is developed. The harvester consists of a unimorph piezoelectric cantilever beam with a tip mass. The derived model accounts for geometric, inertia, piezoelectric, and fluid drag nonlinearities. A reduced-order model is derived by using the Euler–Lagrange principle and Gauss law and implementing a Galerkin discretization. The method of multiple scales is used to obtain analytical expressions for the tip deflection, output voltage, and harvested power near the first principal parametric resonance. The effects of the nonlinear piezoelectric coefficients, the quadratic damping, and the excitation amplitude on the output voltage and harvested electrical power are quantified. The results show that a one-mode approximation in the Galerkin approach is not sufficient to evaluate the performance of the harvester. Furthermore, the nonlinear piezoelectric coefficients have an important influence on the harvester’s behavior in terms of softening or hardening. Depending on the excitation frequency, it is determined that, for small values of the quadratic damping, there is an overhang associated with a subcritical pitchfork bifurcation.     

Bifurcation analysis of an aeroelastic system with concentrated nonlinearities

Analytical and numerical analyses of the nonlinear response of a three-degree-of-freedom nonlinear aeroelastic system are performed. Particularly, the effects of concentrated structural nonlinearities on the different motions are determined. The concentrated nonlinearities are introduced in the pitch, plunge, and flap springs by adding cubic stiffness in each of them. Quasi-steady approximation and the Duhamel formulation are used to model the aerodynamic loads. Using the quasi-steady approach, we derive the normal form of the Hopf bifurcation associated with the system??s instability. Using the nonlinear form, three configurations including supercritical and subcritical aeroelastic systems are defined and analyzed numerically. The characteristics of these different configurations in terms of stability and motions are evaluated. The usefulness of the two aerodynamic formulations in the prediction of the different motions beyond the bifurcation is discussed.     

Dielectric proprieties of ferroelectric ceramics derived from the system BaTiO3NaNbO3-based solid solutions

Dielectric studies performed on the solid solution Ba_1−xNa_xTi_1−xNb_xO₃ (BNTN) show that all compositions (x= 0.1, 0.15, 0.2, 0.4, 0.5 and 0.025, 0.05, 0.6, 0.7, 0.8) exhibit a ferroelectric–paraelectric phase transition where the Curie temperature is a function of the composition. The specimens with composition BNTN (x= 0.05, 0.1, 0.15, 0.2) have been refined by the Celref method from X-ray powder diffraction data. The evolution of dielectric constant as a function of temperature and frequency in the range 77–500 K and 20–2 × 10⁵ Hz, respectively, show that these ceramics present the classical ferroelectric character when 0x<0.075 and 0.55<x1 and relaxor character when 0.075x0.55.