Design of an aeroelastic delta wing model for active flutter control

Ongoing research into the active control of aeroelastic structures has resu lted in a new model for the control of delta wing flutter. An analytical an d numerical formulation for both the aerodynamic forcing and structural res ponse of the wing was developed. The order of the aerodynamic model was red uced through balanced model reduction, yielding an accurate, low-order repr esentation of the three-dimensional flowfield around the delta wing. This f ully coupled aero/structural model was used to investigate the optimal plac ement of piezoelectric sensors and actuators to design an adaptive structur e that emphasized control of the flutter mode. Previous work has shown that such control schemes can delay the onset of flutter to increased dynamic p ressure. This work extends the practical use of reduced-order aerodynamic m odeling to the realm of real-time control system design, while simultaneous ly applying recently developed techniques for open-loop design and selectio n of sensors and actuators. Results indicate that a single sensor/actuator pair can be designed to significantly extend the flutter boundary.