Response of a plate in turbulent channel flow: Analysis of fluid–solid coupling

The paper performs simulation of a rectangular plate excited by turbulent channel flow at friction Reynolds numbers of 180 and 400. The fluid–structure interaction is assumed to be one-way coupled, i.e, the fluid affects the solid and not vice versa. We solve the incompressible Navier–Stokes equations using finite volume direct numerical simulation in the fluid domain. In the solid domain, we solve the dynamic linear elasticity equations using a time-domain finite element method. The obtained plate averaged displacement spectra collapse in the low frequency region in outer scaling. However, the high frequency spectral levels do not collapse in inner units. This spectral behavior is reasoned using theoretical arguments. The resonant vibration is stronger at the third natural frequency than at the first natural frequency. We explain this behavior by comparing the fluid and solid length scales. We further study the sources of plate excitation using a novel formulation. This formulation expresses the average displacement spectrum of the plate as an integrated contribution from the fluid sources within the channel. Analysis of the sources reveals that at the plate natural frequencies, the contribution of the fluid sources to the plate excitation peaks in the buffer layer. The corresponding wall-normal width is found to be ≈0.75δ. The integrated contribution of the overlap and outer regions together to the plate response is comparable to that from the buffer region for Re_τ=180 and exceeds the buffer region contribution for Re_τ=400. We analyze the decorrelated features of the sources using spectral Proper Orthogonal Decomposition (POD) of the net displacement source. We enforce the orthogonality of the modes in an inner product with a symmetric positive definite kernel. The dominant spectral POD mode contributes to the entire plate excitation. The contribution of the remaining modes from the different wall-normal regions undergo destructive interference resulting in zero net contribution. The envelope of the dominant mode further shows that the intensity of the sources peaks in the buffer region and the wall-normal width of the sources extend well into the outer region of the channel.