How to translate "flutter" into Portuguese (Portugal or Brazilian)?

Question

The word flutter is used in 4 very different settings: Science, Medicine, Music and Literature in general, with quite very different meanings.

1. In Medicine it is one of the four (4) types of palpitations of the heart: pounding, too fast, skipping a beat and fluttering.

2. In Music it is used to describe a technique for rolling the tongue (or the throat) while playing wind instruments, as explained here on YouTube.

3. In Science it is a phenomenon encountered in flexible structures subjected to aerodynamic forces. The easiest example, here (YouTube).

It is this last meaning that I am looking for in Portuguese.

It is fairly obvious to see that the word is NOT synonymous with oscillation, reverberation, or resonance - and it is a very specific case (or type) of a vibration - so none of these should be a translation.

Answer 1

Both flutter and ressonância aeroelástica are used in the sense you want. Here are a few examples (my boldface in all quotes):

O efeito flutter, ou também chamado de ressonância aeroelástica […]
(Flutter, o “efeito quebra-asas”, Integrando Conhecimento, 2016.)

Flutter é caracterizado como uma ressonância aeroelástica causada pelo acoplamento entre modos de vibração da estrutura com o carregamento aerodinâmico.
(Gustavo Andreas Vieira, “Metodologia de escolha da orientação de compósitos laminados para maximizar a velocidade de flutter em uma asa”, UFRGS.)

Nos últimos 10 anos ocorreram no Brasil, cerca de 4 acidentes mortais com planadores em 2 dos quais, o fenômeno de “flutter” ou ressonância aeroelástica, esteve presente (Planadores Brasil.)

Aeroelasticity(Wikipedia)―Aeroelasticidade in Portuguese (Wikipédia)―is a branch of physics and engeneering that deals with flutter and related phenomena. In this sense flutter is also known as aeroelastic flutter, to disambiguate from other senses of flutter, I suppose. For instance this video from NASA uses aeroelastic flutter and flutter interchangeably.

You also find, although less frequently, vibração aeroelástica as in (this article about Takoma Bridge, which was famously brought down by aeroelastic flutter; trepidação aeroelástica (this post also about Takoma bridge); tremulação or oscilação aeroelástica (this PhD thesis at UFSC.); and agitação aeroelástica (this article at UFABC).

Answer 2

This is about "flutter" in medicine. Not exactly the meaning you want a translation for, this may be of some help, though.

There is no translation for "flutter" in pt-BR. We spell and pronounce it the same way native English speakers do. In cardiology, which happens to be my specialty, we say and write "flutter atrial". This can be found in any Brazilian textbook of internal medicine or cardiology.

Unlike "approach", "OK", "delivery", "fashion", "market", which have their corresponding words in Portuguese, "flutter" does not. Inasmuch as Brazilian medicine tends to be a fair copy of what is practised in the U.S., it is just natural that foreign words should abound in the Brazilian medical literature.

I think, and this is my personal opinion, that adopting so many foreign words instead of trying to coin what should look and sound like Portuguese words may not always be the best practice.

Answer 3

I couldn't find a proper translation, but I've found some approximations:

1. In Aviões e Músicas ("Airplanes and Songs", a great blog created by a guy who works in airplanes maintenance), flutter is described as condição de vibração extrema (in a free translation, something like "extreme vibration condition")

2. In this article's comment, flutter is described as vibrações geradas por aeroelasticidade (or "vibrations caused by aeroelasticity")

3. In wikipedia, it's oscilação auto-excitada que ocorre quando... (aka "specific type of oscillation that happens in some specific situation")

As you can see, especially in the cases 1 and 2, they use the English word followed by an explanation. This makes me believe that there's no proper translation, at least in pt-BR.

And my guess is that people just use the English word instead of trying to find an equivalent in *ortuguese, as it usually happens in many areas of knowledge.