Experimental validation of vibration similitude laws for stiffened panels excited by a turbulent boundary layer

Stiffened structures excited by a turbulent boundary layer (TBL) occur in many engineering applications, particularly in the aerospace and naval sectors. The structures encountered in these applications are generally large and complex, and carrying out experiments in order to characterize their vibration response can be costly, time-consuming and difficult. To overcome these constraints, the similitude theory can be used to estimate the response of a full scale structure from the response of a reduced scale structure. A simplifying step to determine these similitude laws for stiffened panels consists in modeling the panel as an equivalent orthotropic panel. Then, using the governing equation of the orthotropic panel and considering the TBL excitation, the vibration similitude laws are derived implying similitude conditions to be respected on geometrical and material properties of the structure as well as flow velocity. In this paper, we present the developments of these similitude laws and an experimental validation for panels in air. The similitude conditions are discussed to adequately choose the properties of scaled stiffened panels. Experimental results are presented to show that the structural response of the reference panel can be recovered from the response of the reduced scale panel using the related scaling laws.