Hybrid control technique applied to an aero-servo-viscoelastic simplified wing model

Abstract

Considering that flutter represents a potential catastrophic event in the context of aerospace structures, numerous studies have evaluated a number of strategies to avoid and/or control this kind of aeroelastic phenomenon. Currently, both active and passive control have been investigated to prevent instabilities induced by the interaction between aerodynamic and structural forces. It is also important to highlight the successful cases in which passive control techniques using viscoelastic materials have been useful to mitigate several types of vibration problems. However, there are still opportunities to explore the potential of control using viscoelastic material in the scope of aeroelasticity, especially when involving its combination with other control techniques. Therefore, this work presents a strategy involving a hybrid approach to aeroelastic control of a simplified unswept and untapered wing, using a combination of passive and active techniques. Passive control is achieved by the use of viscoelastic materials inserted as resilient elements in the aeroelastic model, while active control is performed by means of the deflections of a flap-like aerodynamic control surface, governed by a proportional-derivative control law. The results show that the application of the passive control alone causes an increase of up to 25.4% in critical flutter speed. In addition, the association of passive and active controls lead to higher control performance and the critical speed is increased by a further 6.8%, thus providing a broader safe flight speed range. Hence, the investigation indicates that the hybrid control approach exploring viscoelastic materials can be advantageous in practical applications.