Methods and advances in the study of aeroelasticity with uncertainties

Abstract

Uncertainties denote the operators which describe data error, numerical error and model error in the mathematical methods. The study of aeroelasticity with uncertainty embedded in the subsystems, such as the uncertainty in the modeling of structures and aerodynamics, has been a hot topic in the last decades. In this paper, advances of the analysis and design in aeroelasticity with uncertainty are summarized in detail. According to the non-probabilistic or probabilistic uncertainty, the developments of theories, methods and experiments with application to both robust and probabilistic aeroelasticity analysis are presented, respectively. In addition, the advances in aeroelastic design considering either probabilistic or non-probabilistic uncertainties are introduced along with aeroelastic analysis. This review focuses on the robust aeroelasticity study based on the structured singular value method, namely the μ method. It covers the numerical calculation algorithm of the structured singular value, uncertainty model construction, robust aeroelastic stability analysis algorithms, uncertainty level verification, and robust flutter boundary prediction in the flight test, etc. The key results and conclusions are explored. Finally, several promising problems on aeroelasticity with uncertainty are proposed for future investigation.