Aeroservoelasticity, Current Trends and Future Expectations

Accomplishments and the status of three related activities that are part of a large aeroservoelasticity program underway at the NASA Langley Research Center are presented. One activity focuses on enhancing modeling and analysis procedures to improve the capability of predicting aeroservoelastic interactions. Another deals with the development of design methodologies. An integrated multidisciplinary approach based on hierarchical decomposition, multilevel optimization, and the use of analytical sensitivities of the discipline designs to system parameters is reviewed. Also, a design procedure for obtaining low-order, multifunction, digital, robust control systems for controlling and exploiting the aeroelastic characteristics of flexible flight vehicles is discussed. A third activity is concerned with the validation of new theoretical developments by experimentation. In this context, recent accomplishments associated with the Active Flexible Wing wind-tunnel test project are presented. The paper concludes by providing some observations of technical and management concerns which need to be addressed if aeroservoelastic technology is to impact the next generation flight vehicle designs in a favorable way.