Thin panel behavior in supersonic flow

What is it about?

Vehicles in supersonic flows experience a variety of loads which can lead to catastrophic failure of the structure. In this paper, we experimentally investigate how the structure interacts with its surrounding fluid particles when we replace a rigid structure with a thin, elastic vibrating panel. We try and vary different parameters to determine whether the panel excitations grow.

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Photo by NASA on Unsplash

Photo by NASA on Unsplash

Why is it important?

Understanding fluid/structure interaction (FSI) in supersonic and hypersonic flows is absolutely vital to aircraft/spacecraft designs and computation fluid dynamics (CFD). The work presented in the paper experimentally investigates the impact of panel vibrations on the flow and vice versa and helps us determine what parameters (like panel thickness, material and aspect ratio and loads like impinging shock waves and forced panel excitations) effect these interactions