This dissertation addresses model form uncertainty quantification, non-deterministic simulations, and sensitivity analysis of the results of these simulations, with a focus on application to analysis of unmanned aircraft systems. The model form uncertainty quantification utilizes equation error to estimate the error between an identified model and flight test results. The errors are then related to aircraft states, and prediction intervals are calculated. This method for model form uncertainty quantification results in uncertainty bounds that vary with the aircraft state, narrower where consistent information has been collected and wider where data are not available. Non-deterministic simulations can then be performed to provide uncertainty quantified estimates of the system performance. The model form uncertainties could be time varying, so multiple sampling methods were considered. The two methods utilized were a fixed uncertainty level and a rate bounded variation in the uncertainty level. For analysis using fixed uncertainty level, the corner points of the model form uncertainty were sampled, providing reduced computational time. The second model better represents the uncertainty but requires significantly more simulations to sample the uncertainty. The uncertainty quantified performance estimates are compared to estimates based on flight tests to check the accuracy of the results.
Sensitivity analysis is performed on the uncertainty quantified performance estimates to provide information on which of the model form uncertainties contribute most to the uncertainty in the performance estimates. The proposed method uses the results from the fixed uncertainty level analysis that utilizes the corner points of the model form uncertainties. The sensitivity of each parameter is estimated based on corner values of all the other uncertain parameters. This results in a range of possible sensitivities for each parameter dependent on the true value of the other parameters. / Ph. D. / This dissertation examines a process that can be utilized to quantify the uncertainty associated with an identified model, the performance of the system accounting for the uncertainty, and the sensitivity of the performance estimates to the various uncertainties. This uncertainty is present in the identified model because of modeling errors and will tend to increase as the states move away from locations where data has been collected. The method used in this paper to quantify the uncertainty attempts to represent this in a qualitatively correct sense. The uncertainties provide information that is used to predict the performance of the aircraft. A number of simulations are performed, with different values for the uncertain terms chosen for each simulation. This provides a family of possible results to be produced. The uncertainties can be sampled in various manners, and in this study were sampled at fixed levels and at time varying levels. The sampling of fixed uncertainty level required fewer samples, improving computational requirements. Sampling with time varying uncertainty better captures the nature of the uncertainty but requires significantly more simulations. The results provide a range of the expected performance based on the uncertainty.
Sensitivity analysis is performed to determine which of the input uncertainties produce the greatest uncertainty in the performance estimates. To account for the uncertainty in the true parameter values, the sensitivity is predicted for a number of possible values of the uncertain parameters. This results in a range of possible sensitivities for each parameter dependent on the true value of the other parameters. The range of sensitivities can be utilized to determine the future testing to be performed.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:VTETD/oai:vtechworks.lib.vt.edu:10919/74427 |
| Date | 24 January 2017 |
| Creators | Hale II, Lawrence Edmond |
| Contributors | Aerospace and Ocean Engineering, Patil, Mayuresh J., Roy, Christopher J., Farhood, Mazen H., Woolsey, Craig A. |
| Publisher | Virginia Tech |
| Source Sets | Virginia Tech Theses and Dissertation |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Dissertation |
| Format | ETD, application/pdf |
| Rights | In Copyright, http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/ |
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