On a cold day in late February, Vicoter carried out a GVT (Ground Vibration Testing) activity on the F1-EVO aircraft, designed and built by Team Rocket. The tests were carried out at the Casale Monferrato airport (AL) with the aim of identifying only the tail modes, vertical plane and horizontal plane, and the related movable surfaces in two configurations: stick fixed and stick free condition. This information was then used by the customer to deepen the study of a high vibratory level perceived on the vertical plane at high flight speed.
With a procedure already checked on several occasions, Vicoter’s engineers instrumented the aircraft with 34 accelerometers and setup it in free-free condition. Because of the impossibility of suspending the entire airplane, this boundary condition was realized by deflating the tires and lifting the tail using a soft elastic rope. The aircraft was then excited with an electro-dynamic shaker to obtain the FRF (Frequency Response Function), while the control surfaces were investigated through impact tests.
The tail, rudder and elevators modes were therefore identified up to a frequency of 80 Hz during the post-processing phase.
