Bending-torsion flutter of a highly swept advanced turboprop

Experimental and analytical results are presented for a bending-torsion flutter phenomena encountered during wind-tunnel testing of a ten-bladed, advanced, high-speed propeller (turboprop) model with thin airfoil sections, high blade sweep, low aspect ratio, high solidity and transonic tip speeds. Flutter occurred at free-stream Mach numbers of 0.6 and greater and when the relative tip Mach number (based on vector sum of axial and tangential velocities) reached a value of about one. The experiment also included two- and five-blade configurations. The data indicate that aerodynamic cascade effects have a strong destabilizing influence on the flutter boundary. The data was correlated with analytical results which include aerodynamic cascade effects and good agreement was found.