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Seminar: Modeling and Control of a Highly Flexible Flutter Demonstrator - Feb. 3

Manuel Pusch

Manuel Pusch
Post Doctoral Scholar, Smead Aerospace
Thurs, Feb. 3 | 4:00 P.M. | Hybrid: AERO N240 &

Abstract: Highly fuel-efficient aircraft designs with low-weight, high aspect ratio wings often suffer from an increased flutter sensitivity. Flutter is an undesired oscillation which becomes unstable above a certain airspeed due to a coupling of structural dynamics and aerodynamics. To counter this adverse aeroelastic effect, active control techniques to suppress flutter are becoming increasingly important.

In this talk, the challenges of designing a flutter suppression controller are discussed based on an unmanned flutter demonstrator aircraft. For the design and validation of the flutter controller, an integrated aeroelastic model of the aircraft is derived which considers unsteady aerodynamics, flexibility of the structure, and nonlinear rigid body motions of the aircraft.

Advanced input/output blending techniques are then used to decouple the unstable flutter modes and individually control them by scheduled single loop controllers. For the tuning of the free parameters in the defined controller structure, a model-based approach solving a multi-objective, non-linear optimization problem is used. The developed control system has been verified in an extensive simulation campaign using a high-fidelity simulator and hardware-in-the-loop tests.

Bio: Manuel Pusch received his master’s degree in aerospace engineering from the Technical University Munich (TUM), Germany, in 2013. After that, he worked as a research associate at the Institute of System Dynamics and Control, German Aerospace Center (DLR), Oberpfaffenhofen, Germany, where he finished his PhD in mechanical engineering in cooperation with the Technical University of Hamburg (TUHH), Germany, in 2020. Since 2021, he has been a post-doctoral researcher at the Department of Electrical, Computer, and Energy Engineering at the University of Colorado Boulder. His main research interests include modeling, control, and optimization of flight systems, wind turbines, and flexible structures.