Added-Mass Based Efficient Fluid–Structure Interaction Model for Dynamics of Axially Moving Panels with Thermal Expansion

The paper considers the analysis of a traveling panel, submerged in axially flowing fluid. In order to accurately model the dynamics and stability of a lightweight moving material, the interaction between the material and the surrounding air must be taken into account. The lightweight material leads to the inertial contribution of the surrounding air to the acceleration of the panel becoming significant. This formulation is novel and the case complements our previous studies on the field. The approach described in this paper allows for an efficient semi-analytical solution, where the reaction pressure of the fluid flow is analytically represented by an added-mass model in terms of the panel displacement. Then, the panel displacement, accounting also for the fluid–structure interaction, is analyzed with the help of the weak form of the governing partial differential equation, using a Galerkin method. In the first part of this paper, we represent the traveling panel by a single partial differential equation in weak form, using an added-mass approximation of the exact fluid reaction. In the second part, we apply a Galerkin method for dynamic stability analysis of the panel, and present an analytical investigation of static stability loss (divergence, buckling) based on the added-mass model.