Experiments on Heave / Pitch Limit-Cycle Oscillations of a Supercritical Airfoil

Results from flutter experiments of the supercritical airfoil NLR 7301 at flow conditions near the transonic dip are presented. The airfoil was mounted with two degrees-of-freedom in an adaptive solid-wall wind tunnel, and boundary-layer transition was tripped. The results link the global aerodynamic force behavior to the observed LCOs and the identified transonic dip. The time lag of the lift response to the pitching motion of the airfoil appears to be responsible for the characteristic shape of the transonic dip. The amplitude limitation of the LCOs results from a slightly nonlinear dependency of lift and moment on the amplitude of the airfoil motion. LCOs can be controlled by relatively small forces, but amplitudes strongly depend on the damping of the aeroelastic system.