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In this paper, a robust output feedback control design is developed for suppression of aeroelastic vibration of a 2-DOF nonlinear wing section system. The aeroelastic system operates in a quasi-steady aerodynamic incompressible flowfield and is actuated using a combination of a leading-edge (LE) and a trailing-edge (TE) flap. By only utilizing measurements of pitching and plunging deflections, an innovative Lyapunov-based procedure is used to design sliding mode control inputs for the LE and TE control surface deflections. The closed-loop system is shown to have semi-global asymptotic stability even in the presence of model uncertainty and unknown external gust loading. Extensive simulation results under a variety of scenarios show the effectiveness of the control strategy.

The development and accelerated use of optimization frameworks in aircraft design is a testament to their ability to identify optimal and often non-intuitive shapes as a result of multi-disciplinary design objectives. Airfoil design is a continuously revised multi-disciplinary problem, and is pivotal to illustrate the performance of optimization frameworks involving numerical simulation, flexible shape parametrization, and intelligent evolutionary algorithms. An often overlooked component of this classic problem is to consider the dynamic aeroelastic behavior under trim conditions, which can generate explicit boundaries to the flight envelope. Trim introduces a significantly strong coupling with objectives governing static performance, e.g. aerodynamic and/or structural, thereby resulting in a highly nonlinear and discontinuous design space. In this paper, a multi-objective particle swarm optimization framework for multi-disciplinary performance improvement is presented, pertaining to aerodynamic, structural and aeroelastic design criteria at trim conditions. The framework is assisted by the construction of adaptive Kriging surrogates, which is cooperatively used with the numerical solver to identify optimal solutions within a computational constraint. Designer preferences are introduced to reflect the optimal compromise between the objectives. Results of the optimization process indicate a large spread in design variable influence and interaction, and a subtle yet clear distinction between all objectives is illustrated through the catalog of final airfoil candidates obtained.

In this paper, a fully adaptive control design is considered for a four-degree-of-freedom aeroelastic system that has structural nonlinearities and operates in an unsteady aerodynamic incompressible flowfield. By using the flap hinge torque of a trailing-edge flap surface in combination with a leading-edge active flap, a closed-loop controller that adapts for uncertainties in the system parameters is designed. An implicit observer is implemented in the control design to compensate for lack of measurements of the lag states that model the unsteady flow. The innovative Lyapunov-based control design procedure results in a partial-state feedback adaptive controller that is globally asymptotically stable. Numerical simulation results show the effectiveness of the control strategy; comparative simulations are run to illustrate the benefit of using twin flaps as opposed to the conventional single flap control design.

The next generation of slender, flexible aircraft wings requires extremely lightweight structures capable of carrying a considerableamountof non-structuralweight.With the increased slenderness and flexibility, possible with the advent of advanced composites, these wings can exhibit aeroelastic instabilities quite different from their rigid counterparts. The design of highly flexible aircraft, such as high-altitude long endurance (HALE) configurations, must include phenomena that are not usually considered in traditional aircraft design, such that an alternative design philosophy has been proposed for this class of vehicles. The discussion in this article is restricted, among the various aeroelastic phenomena, to the flutter condition. Classical procedures usually refer to aero-structural systems where the undeformedstate is taken as the reference point. This is not the case with slender wing configuration where, due to the high structural flexibility, a proper beam model, capable of describing the structural flight deflections, should be adopted. Consequently, the flutter analysis has to be performed considering the deflected state as a reference point. Herein, an approximate procedure is proposed and flutter is evaluated by means of Galerkin's approach applied to the perturbed small motions of the aero-structural system. The effect of typical parameters, including stiffness ratio, mass eccentricity, store pod, deflection amplitude, as well as the wing aspect ratio, are considered. For a simplified wing configuration, comparisons between analytical and experimental findings are presented along with discussions and suggestions for new design criteria. Keywords: advanced aircraft design, linear/non-linear aeroelasticity, flutter, experimental aeroelasticity

Damage detection and structural health monitoring techniques based on vibration data have seen increased attention in recent years. Among the different vibration-based methods, the ones based on random vibrations are of particularly interest, especially when they do not require measurement of the input(s). In this work, several frequency and time domain signal processing techniques are explored in their respective abilities to detect damage in a bolted composite structure. First, a joint loosening model is developed and used to simulate the dynamic response to a stationary Gaussian excitation. Informed by the model, two signal processing techniques are used to assess the connection strength. The first method relies on basic statistical properties of the measured strains and their time derivatives, while the second is based on the signal power in different frequency bands. Both approaches are then used to assess progressive bolt loosening on an experimental composite-to-metal joint. All strain response data were obtained using a fiber optic strain sensing system. Results are presented in the form of Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) curves, showing both Type-I and Type-II errors associated with the proposed detection schemes.

In the current work, the study of the aeroelastic behaviour of a wing with external store(s), such as a missile or drop fuel tank, is presented. The aeroelastic governing equations derived for a cantilever wing with coupled bending and torsion modes account for structural and aerodynamic non-linearities. Coupling terms retained in the aeroelastic governing equations are due to: (a) the non-linear beam theory, (b) the aerodynamic non-linearities of a quasi-steady model with stall, and (c) the non-linear kinematics terms of the store(s). As presented in the paper, this aircraft configuration can induce pathologies, such as store(s)-induced limit cycle oscillations (or si-LCOs), very different from the one of a clean wing configuration, and from the one obtained from the linearized form of the aeroelastic governing equations. Time domain simulation, phase portrait, and bifurcation analyses are performed for various velocities, initial conditions, and store(s)-sensitive parameters — such as store mass, number, location along the wing — to examine the dynamic aeroelastic instabilities of the system (e.g. the onset of flutter and LCO). Numerical studies indicate the presence of regions of subcritical Hopf-bifurcation, corresponding to an unstable LCO, for velocities below the linear flutter velocity.

By using a combined analytical-computational methodology, a unified modelling of aerodynamic indicial functions covering the incompressible, subsonic compressible, transonic, and supersonic flight speed regimes is presented. The procedure is carried out in conjunction with a computational fluid dynamic analysis. For a plunging-pitching airfoil, selected unsteady aerodynamic load expressions have been supplied, and appropriate procedures enabling one to obtain these loads via the indicial function approach have been presented. While a single indicial function is needed to describe the aerodynamic loads in the incompressible flight speed regime, for cases where the compressibility effects play a dominant role, four indicial functions are needed. Having in view the usefulness of indicial functions towards determination of unsteady aerodynamics loads in both time and frequency domains, and implicitly for aeroelastic response and flutter predictions, the advantages of their implementation and use appear evident. Comparisons and validations of the aerodynamic model against numerical, analytical, and experimental results are presented, and pertinent conclusions are drawn.