Aircraft Ground Vibration Testing at ONERA

During the development of a new aircraft, the Ground Vibration Test (GVT) is an important milestone because flutter computation relies on its results to determine the start of flight tests. Since the creation of ONERA after World War II, the GVT has always been the subject of fundamental research and application on industrial structures. On the occasion of the 70th anniversary of ONERA, an historical survey of the main methods and significant tests is proposed in this paper. After a brief introduction to the goals of a GVT, we highlight the continuous improvements made in this discipline in parallel with the progress in electronics, computers and algorithms, mainly focusing on internal studies at ONERA. Even though nowadays the GVT has reached maturity, aircraft dynamics is so challenging that several paths of research activities still remain. Keeping in mind the high quality standards expected by aircraft manufacturers, a vision of promising aspects for the future of GVT is finally proposed.