Robust adaptive control of store release event for wings with external stores

An adaptive control algorithm is numerically implemented to examine the eff ectiveness of an online estimation/control scheme for stabilizing the store release of a military aircraft. The adaptive law is based on a gradient me thod used for parameter estimation and is modified with the algorithms of l eakage and dynamic normalization to robustify the adaptation. A linear quad ratic control law based on a Luenberger observer is then used to close the loop. An active method of decoupling the wing from store pitch inertia effe cts for the wing/store Butter suppression problem is proposed. The proposed active decoupler pylon involves the use of a piezoceramic wafer strut as a n actuator, which acts as a soft spring between the wing and the store. A t wo-degree-of-freedom typical section of an airfoil is used to represent the structural model of an F-16 aircraft wing, and the Butter problem is studi ed in incompressible flow regime, where the circulatory component of the ae roloads is modeled using Jones' approximation to the Theodorsen function. T he aerodynamic effects on the store are, however, neglected to make the ana lysis simple. This study demonstrated the effectiveness of the proposed ada ptive control strategy in improving the performance and robustness to sudde n variation in store mass, a realistic situation representing the dropping of underwing bombs.