GPC-Based Gust Response Alleviation for Aircraft Model Adapting to Various Flow Velocities in the Wind Tunnel

Abstract

A unified autoregressive (AR) model is identified, based on the wind tunnel test data of open-loop gust response for an aircraft model. The identified AR model can be adapted to various flow velocities in the wind tunnel test. Due to the lack of discrete gust input measurement, a second-order polynomial function is used to approximate the gust input amplitude by flow velocity. Afterwards, with the identified online aeroelastic model, the modified generalized predictive control (GPC) theory is applied to alleviate wing tip acceleration induced by sinusoidal gust. Finally, the alleviation effects of gust response at different flow velocities are estimated based on the comparison of simulated closed-loop acceleration with experimental open-loop one. The comparison indicates that, after gust response alleviation, the wing tip acceleration can be reduced up to 20% at the tested velocities ranging from 12 m/s to 24 m/s. Demonstratively, the unified control law can be adapted to varying wind tunnel velocities and gust frequencies. It does not need to be altered at different test conditions, which will save the idle time.