Date: Wednesday, October 7, 2009 4:00 PM
Location: 366 Hollister Hall
Aircraft can be exposed to different types of damage in flight. One of the objectives of the NASA’s Integrated Resilient Aircraft Control initiative is to increase the survivability of the aircraft under various adverse conditions (including damage). Discrete source damage, while not leading to immediate loss of the flight vehicle, may induce substantial reduction in the strength and stiffness that could greatly reduce the load carrying capability of the flight vehicle structure. A rapid assessment of the damage and its effect on the further load carrying capability (maneuver loads) of the aircraft during the remainder of the flight is of crucial importance. Under a three-year effort funded under NASA’s IRAC program, we are developing a methodology to rapidly estimate the load constraints and residual life of the aircraft structure. Assessment of the constraints on the maneuver loads requires a multidisciplinary approach including, some aspects of fracture mechanics, structural mechanics, aerodynamics, and flight mechanics. In addition, the response of a damaged aircraft is highly uncertain and thus deterministic approaches are only partially useful. It is, thus, necessary to conduct the analysis within a non-deterministic framework. Finally, since the proposed methodology will be used for in-flight operations, it must be computationally efficient to provide the real-time estimates of the forces needed for the estimation of the damage growth as well as for the adaptive controller design and its implementation.
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