Passive feedback control of transonic buffet flow

The activated structural degree of freedom often causes undesirable large-amplitude structural vibrations in unstable flows, such as the frequency lock-in phenomenon in the transonic buffet flow. The underlying mechanism is the instability characteristic of the system that becomes more complex, namely, further instability on the structural mode because of the effect of fluid-structure interaction. In this paper, we study the feasibility of improving the stability of the transonic buffet flow by activating the structural degree of freedom based on numerical simulations and a low-dimensional model. Results reveal that the activated structural degree of freedom can stabilize the buffet flow, eliminating the source of the oscillatory flow. The essence of this strategy is to efficiently utilize the coupling effect between the structural mode and the fluid mode to improve the stability of the fluid mode by properly decreasing the stability margin of the structural mode. From another perspective, this approach is a new passive-feedback flow control strategy, which does not change the shape of the subject compared with the classical passive control and which does not need extra actuation and power compared with the active control.