<p>This thesis summarizes investigations performed within design, analysis and experimental evaluation of flexible aircraft structures. Not only the problems, but rather the opportunities related to aeroelasticity are discussed.</p><p>In the first part of the thesis, different concepts for using active aeroelastic configurations to increase aircraft performance are considered. In particular, one study deals with the minimization of the induced drag of a highly flexible wing by using multiple control surfaces. Another study deals with a possible implementation of a high-bandwidth piezo electric actuator for control applications using aeroelastic amplification.</p><p>The second part of the thesis deals with the development of an approach for modeling and analysis of flexible structures considering uncertainties in analysis models. Especially in cases of large structural variations, such as fuel level variations, a fixed-base modal formulation in robust flutter analysis may lead to incorrect results. Besides a discussion about this issue, possible means of treating this problem are presented.</p>

This thesis summarizes investigations performed within design, analysis and experimental evaluation of flexible aircraft structures. Not only the problems, but rather the opportunities related to aeroelasticity are discussed. In the first part of the thesis, different concepts for using active aeroelastic configurations to increase aircraft performance are considered. In particular, one study deals with the minimization of the induced drag of a highly flexible wing by using multiple control surfaces. Another study deals with a possible implementation of a high-bandwidth piezo electric actuator for control applications using aeroelastic amplification. The second part of the thesis deals with the development of an approach for modeling and analysis of flexible structures considering uncertainties in analysis models. Especially in cases of large structural variations, such as fuel level variations, a fixed-base modal formulation in robust flutter analysis may lead to incorrect results. Besides a discussion about this issue, possible means of treating this problem are presented. / QC 20101130

Submitted by Lucienne Costa (lucienneferreira@ufcg.edu.br) on 2018-04-30T18:14:28Z No. of bitstreams: 1 ORLANDO TOMAZ DA SILVA NETO – DISSERTAÇÃO (PPGEM) 2016.pdf: 7124483 bytes, checksum: b1fb3855e470f87f0e7d5c3081fcf9f1 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2018-04-30T18:14:28Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 ORLANDO TOMAZ DA SILVA NETO – DISSERTAÇÃO (PPGEM) 2016.pdf: 7124483 bytes, checksum: b1fb3855e470f87f0e7d5c3081fcf9f1 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2016-12-16 / A busca por aumento no desempenho das aeronaves tem direcionado, entre outras coisas, ao aumento da razão de aspecto da asa e ao uso de materiais avançados; essas soluções tem levado ao aumento de flexibilidade, resultando em problemas aeroelásticos ‒ aeroelasticidade é a ciência que estuda os fenômenos provenientes das interações entre forças aerodinâmicas, elásticas e inerciais ‒. Nessa área, destaca-se o flutter, fenômenos aeroelásticos de estabilidade dinâmica. Dentro deste contexto, este trabalho tem por objetivo analisar o comportamento em flutter de uma asa flexível com alta razão de aspecto com atuadores passivos de Ligas com Memória de Forma (LMF) submetida a um escoamento subsônico. Para isso fez-se o projeto, construção e testes de um modelo aeroelástico para ser ensaiado em túnel de vento, o desenvolvimento desse protótipo contou com uma abordagem numérico-experimental; finalizados os testes do modelo, fez-se a seleção e caracterização termomecânica do atuador; por fim, realizou-se os teste no túnel de vento. Os resultados obtidos mostraram que para determinadas disposições dos atuadores na asa o comportamento aeroelástico sofreu um ganho de desempenho bastante significativo como, aumento na velocidade crítica de ocorrência de flutter de aproximadamente 28%, entretanto, para outro arranjo observou-se uma diminuição de 15% na velocidade crítica. Com a análise dos resultados foi possível concluir que deve ser realizado um estudo minucioso do comportamento dinâmico do sistema sob efeito dos atuadores; além disso do efeito de cada arranjo deles na estrutura, para que assim o efeito desejado seja alcançado. / The search for increase in the performance of the aircraft has directed, among other things, to the increase of the aspect ratio of the wing and to the use of advanced materials; These solutions led to an increase of flexibility, resulting in aeroelastic problems - aeroelasticity is the science that studies the phenomena arising from the interactions between aerodynamic, elastic and inertial forces. In this area, we highlight the flutter, dynamic stability aeroelastic phenomenon. In this context, this work aims to analyze the behavior of a flexible wing with high aspect ratio with passive actuators of Shape Memory Alloys (SMA) in flutter, submitted to a subsonic flow. For this, the design, construction and testing of an aeroelastic model was carried out to be tested in a wind tunnel, the development of this prototype counted on a numerical-experimental approach; After finished model tests, the thermomechanical selection and characterization of the actuator was done; Finally, the tests were carried out in the wind tunnel. The results showed that, for certain arrangements of the actuators in the wing, the aeroelastic behavior underwent a very significant performance gain as, an increase of approximately 28% in the critical rate of flutter occurrence. With the results analysis, it was possible to conclude that a detailed study of the dynamic behavior of the actuators and of the effect of each arrangement of them on the structure must be carried out so that the desired effect may be achieved.

In this thesis, aeroelastic concepts for increased aircraft performance are developed and evaluated. Active aeroelastic concepts are in focus as well as robust analysis concepts aiming at efficient analysis using numerical models with uncertain or varying model parameters. The thesis presents different approaches for exploitation of fluid-structure interaction of active aeroelastic structures. First, a high aspect ratio wing in wind tunnel testing conditions is considered. The wing was developed within the European research project \textit{Active Aeroelastic Aircraft Structures} and used to demonstrate how structural flexibility can be exploited by using multiple control surfaces such that the deformed wing shape gives minimum drag for different flight conditions. Two different drag minimization studies are presented, one aiming at reduced induced drag based on numerical optimization techniques, another one aiming at reduced measured total drag using real-time optimization in the wind tunnel experiment. The same wing is also used for demonstration of an active concept for gust load alleviation using a piezoelectric tab. In all studies on the high aspect ratio wing, it is demonstrated that structural flexibility can be exploited to increase aircraft performance. Other studies in this thesis investigate the applicability of robust control tools for flutter analysis considering model uncertainty and variation. First, different techniques for taking large structural variations into account are evaluated. Next, a high-fidelity numerical model of an aircraft with a variable amount of fuel is considered, and robust analysis is applied to find the worst-case fuel configuration. Finally, a study investigating the influence of uncertain external stores aerodynamics is presented. Overall, the robust approach is shown to be capable of treating large structural variations as well as modeling uncertainties to compute worst-case configurations and flutter boundaries. / QC 20100713