On the Effect of Frequency Separation, Mass Ratio, Solidity, and Aerodynamic Resonances in Coupled Mode Flutter of a Linear Compressor Cascade

At a low mass ratio of structure to air, the work-per-cycle approach, or better known as the energy method, will lead to nonconservative results as aerodynamic coupling of modeshapes acts destabilizing. Using the p–k method to solve the aeroelastic stability equation, the effects of various structural aspects are investigated for a two-dimensional compressor cascade in subsonic and transonic flow conditions. The investigated key parameters are frequency separation, mass ratio, and solidity. Furthermore, the effect of a high frequency dependency of the aerodynamic forces is presented. Such phenomena can happen in case of aerodynamic or acoustic resonances. If the resonance peaks are close to the aeroelastic frequency, a discontinuous behavior of the frequency or damping solution can lead to a rapid destabilization of the system, once the aeroelastic frequency moves from one side to the other of the peak. In these regimes, it is crucial to have a high quality representation of the frequency-dependent generalized aerodynamic forces (GAFs) for an accurate prediction of the flutter onset.