Development of a Test Facility for Experimental Investigation of Fluid-Structure Interaction

Fluid-structure interaction phenomena are strongly related to the loading appearing on many energy converting components introducing limitations for improving their efficiency. The term “fluid-structure interaction ” includes many phenomena with the “shock wave – boundary layer interaction ” being one of the most important. This interaction is commonly met in turbomachines where the flow can accelerate enough to become compressible and can cause separation of the boundary layer formed on the structural components of the machine. This results to fluctuating loading on the structure which can lead to its failure due to High Cycle Fatigue (HCF). A vibrating structure in compressible flow can become unstable depending on the sign of the aerodynamic damping that the flow has on the structure. Although the mechanism that causes a structure to become unstable is known, the limits of the stability region are not yet possible to predict with reasonable accuracy. It is therefore necessary to investigate the underlying mechanism of fluid-structur