Dynamic aeroelastic response and active control of composite thin-walled beam structures in compressible flow

The dynamic aeroelastic response and its active control of composite beam structures in compressible flow and exposed to gust and explosive type loads are examined. Modeling of the structures is based on a refined composite thin-walled beam theory and incorporate a number of nonclassical effects, such as transverse shear, material anisotropy, warping inhibition, and rotatory inertia. The unsteady compressible aerodynamic loads for arbitrary small motion in the time domain are derived based on the concept of indicial functions. The sliding mode control (SMC) and linear-quadratic Gaussian (LQG) control methodology with sliding mode observer are used for the purpose of control. The beam structures are restricted to circumferentially asymmetric lay-up construction and the influence of ply angle, flight speed, and external excitations on the response and its active control are specifically investigated. A number of conclusions are outlined at the end.

►The SMC based on SMO is effective in alleviating the dynamic aeroelastic response. ►SMC outperforms the traditional LQG in controlling the dynamic aeroelastic response. ►SMO performs much better than the Kalman filter in state estimation.