The Effect of Steady Aerodynamic Loading on the Flutter Stability of Turbomachinery Blading

An aeroelastic analysis is presented that accounts for the effect of steady aerodynamic loading on the aeroelastic stability of a cascade of compressor blades. The aeroelastic model is a two-degree-of-freedom model having bending and torsional displacements. A linearized unsteady potential flow theory is used to determine the unsteady aerodynamic response coefficients for the aeroelastic analysis. The steady aerodynamic loading was caused by the addition of (1) airfoil thickness and camber and (2) steady flow incidence. The importance of steady loading on the airfoil unsteady pressure distribution is demonstrated. Additionally, the effect of the steady loading on the tuned flutter behavior and flutter boundaries indicates that neglecting either airfoil thickness, camber, or incidence could result in nonconservative estimates of flutter behavior.