Investigation of a flutter exciter for aircraft flight testing using unstructured overset grids

In the present paper, a new kind of flutter exciter for the aircraft flight testing is numerically simulated, and its aerodynamic characteristics are investigated, using the CFD technology of solving unsteady Euler equations based on unstructured overset grids. The numerical results show that the flutter exciter system can generate a reasonably stable exciting force, which is very convenient for the aircraft flutter testing. Additionally, the flutter efficiency can be influenced by some parameters, such as slotted central angle β, diameter of the slotted cylinder d, distance ΔL between the rotational axis and the trailing edge of the vane, section shape of the slotted cylinder, and so on. Too large β, ΔL or too small β, ΔL have bad effect on the flutter efficiency; a larger force can be generated with a larger diameter d; the crescent shape is a better choice. The type of near-root half-opening can generate a little larger exciting force for the flutter testing, comparing with the type of near-tip half-opening.