Flutter Suppression of a Heated Panel in Supersonic Airflow Using Energy Harvesters

Panels in supersonic flow often exhibit complex nonlinear dynamic behavior due to the aerodynamic heating effect, which can severely affect flight safety. This paper uses three types of energy harvesters (EHs) with different stiffness characteristics to suppress the flutter response of a heated panel, emphasizing the significance of converting mechanical energy into electrical energy with the suppression of limit cycle oscillation. The panel–EH coupled aeroelastic model is established based on von Kármán large deflection and piston theory, and it is discretized for numerical solution using the Galerkin method. The stability boundaries and flutter responses of the panel under linear, purely cubic nonlinear, and general nonlinear (with both linear and cubic coefficients) EHs are compared. The effects of varying stiffness, mass, installation location, and temperature elevation on flutter suppression performance are investigated. The results reveal that the general nonlinear EH exhibits superior performance by simultaneously increasing the critical flutter pressure and effectively suppressing postflutter response while maintaining robustness to temperature variations. The purely cubic nonlinear EH, although negligible in altering the flutter boundary, significantly reduces postflutter amplitude through strongly modulated responses. The linear EH shows limited suppression capability and high sensitivity to temperature variations. This work provides a novel approach for the passive flutter suppression design of a supersonic heated panel.