State-Space Adaptation of Unsteady Lifting Line Theory: Twisting/Flapping Wings of Finite Span

In this paper, a low-order state-space adaptation of the unsteady lifting line model has been analytically derived for a wing of finite aspect ratio, suitable for use in real-Time control of wake-dependent forces. Each discretization along the span has between 1-6 states to represent the local unste...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Zhu, Qiang, Izraelevitz, Jacob Samuel, Triantafyllou, Michael S
Other Authors: Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Mechanical Engineering
Format: Article
Published: American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) 2019
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/120112
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1555-9136
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4960-7060
Description
Summary:In this paper, a low-order state-space adaptation of the unsteady lifting line model has been analytically derived for a wing of finite aspect ratio, suitable for use in real-Time control of wake-dependent forces. Each discretization along the span has between 1-6 states to represent the local unsteady wake effects, rather than remembering the entire wake history which unnecessarily complicates controller design. Sinusoidal perturbations to each system degree of freedom are also avoided. Instead, a state-space model is fit to individual indicial functions for each blade element, allowing the downwash and lift distributions over the span to be arbitrary. The wake geometry is assumed to be quasi steady (no roll up) but with fully unsteady vorticity. The model supports time-varying surge (a nonlinear effect), dihedral, heave, sweep, and twist along the span. Cross-coupling terms are explicitly derived. This state-space model is then validated through comparison with an analytic solution for elliptic wings, an unsteady vortex lattice method, and experiments from the literature.