Flight Dynamic Simulation with Nonlinear Aeroelastic Interaction using the ROM-ROM Procedure

ZONA Technology, Inc. (ZONA) proposes to develop an integrated flight dynamics simulation capability with nonlinear aeroelastic interactions by combining a flight dynamics model and an added-on nonlinear aeroelastic solver in a Simulink environment. This nonlinear aeroelastic solver is generated by interacting a nonlinear structural reduced order model (ROM) with a Neural-Network-based (NN-based) aerodynamic ROM, called the ROM-ROM procedure, to provide the incremental aeroelastic forces and moments to a given flight dynamics model. In this way, the flight dynamics model is kept with minimum changes so that this integrated flight dynamics simulation remains in the frame work of a 6 degrees-of-freedom simulation environment. The nonlinear structural ROM employs a so-called ELSTEP/FAT procedure that operates on a nonlinear finite element method, such as MSC.Nastrans solution 106 to construct a set of modal-based nonlinear stiffness matrices. The NN-based aerodynamic ROM is generated using a system identification technique operating on a CFD code to evaluate the weights and biases in a two-layer feed-forward neural network system. The end product is called NL-DFS which can simulate the key aeroelastic coupling mechanism between nonlinear structural dynamics and nonlinear unsteady aerodynamics with classical rigid body dynamics of a slender, flexible and sizable aircraft in nonlinear aerodynamic flight conditions.

ZONA's business plan for NL-DFS will follow ZONA's flagship software, called: ZAERO, product/service sales strategy. The added capabilities developed in NL-DFS will strengthen ZONA's market position in the aerospace industry. NL-DFS will be marketed towards flight test applications on a wide class of aerospace vehicles such as: (a) USAF's F-22 and F-35 aircrafts at Edwards AFB, (b) UASF's Hilda, sensorcraft as well as stealth and morphing UAV/UCAV, (c) DARPA's Morphing Aerostructure (MAS), (d) Boeing 7E7 and future executive jet designs of Cessna, Raytheon, etc. The proposed NL-DFS can also be applied to validate health management strategies specifically designed for aircraft designs with prominent aeroelastic characteristics.

A flight dynamics simulation capability with an added-on nonlinear aeroelastic solver is still not available. NASA has been working for many years towards achieving a software package that would accurately predict the interaction between flight dynamics considering airframe structural flexibility in closed-loop with flight control laws. The proposed NL-DFS is aimed at providing an expedient multidisciplinary nonlinear flight simulation tool to perform an efficient flaw debugging for advanced control laws as well as to promote physical understanding of the in-flight observed dynamic behaviors due to evolutionary designs. It also will assist in the prediction of the instabilities onset prior to envelop expansion programs. NL-DFS will be especially valuable during NASA's current and next generation flying quantities and envelope expansion programs.

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