Apparent Wing Stiffness Using Load Control

Rafael Palacios
Imperial College
London

We investigate computational methods for the design of aerostructures in which aerodynamic load control strategies allow for high compliance. This talk will introduce first modelling approaches for coupled aeroelasticity and flight dynamics of very flexible aircraft. A medium-fidelity approach for nonlinear simulation and analysis, based on geometrically-nonlinear beams and unsteady vortex-lattice aerodynamics, will be introduced and exemplified in the study of the dynamics of solar-powered aircraft. Aerodynamic load control will be then demonstrated in two prototypical examples: first, the response of a flexible vehicle in wake-vortex encounter will be investigated using a feedforward strategy for fast response; second, high improvements in the maneuverability of a very flexible flying wing will be demonstrated using predictive control with model updating. The latter is built on an original methodology for a nonlinear model reduction in structural dynamics, which will be finally discussed.

About the speaker...

Rafael Palacios is Reader in Aeronautics at Imperial College London. He is Aeronautical Engineer from Universidad Politécnica, Madrid (1998), and Ph.D. in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Michigan (2005), which he attended first with a Fulbright and later with an FXB Fellowship. His PhD received the AIAA Foundation Orville and Wilbur Wright Graduate Award. His research is on computational methods in aeroservoelasticity and fluid-structure interactions, with applications to nonlinear aeroelastic design and control of large offshore wind turbines and air vehicles. This work has been funded by the UK Research Council, European Commission, AFOSR, QinetiQ and Airbus. Rafael is associate editor of Progress in Aerospace Sciences, the Journal of Fluids and Structures, and the Journal of Aircraft, a Fellow of the Royal Aeronautical Society, and a member of the AIAA Structural Dynamics Technical Committee.