Quantifying Initial Condition and Parametric Uncertainties in a Nonlinear Aeroelastic System With an Efficient Stochastic Algorithm

Abstract

There is a growing interest in understanding how uncertainties in flight conditions and structural parameters affect the character of a limit cycle oscillation (LCO) response, leading to failure of an aeroelastic system. Uncertainty quantification of a stochastic system (parametric uncertainty) with stochastic inputs (initial condition uncertainty) has traditionally been analyzed with Monte Carlo simulations (MCS). Probability density functions (PDF) of the LCO response are obtained from the MCS to estimate the probability of failure. A candidate approach to efficiently estimate the PDF of an LCO response is the stochastic projection method. The objective of this research is to extend the stochastic projection method to include the construction of B-spline surfaces in the stochastic domain. The multivariate B-spline problem is solved to estimate the LCO response surface. An MCS is performed on this response surface to estimate the PDF of the LCO response. The probability of failure is then computed from the PDF. This method is applied to the problem of estimating the PDF of a subcritical LCO response of a nonlinear airfoil in inviscid transonic flow. The stochastic algorithm provides a conservative estimate of the probability of failure of this aeroelastic system two orders of magnitude more efficiently than performing an MCS on the governing equations.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Sep 01, 2004
Accession Number
ADA426657

Entities

People

  • Daniel R. Millman

Organizations

  • Air Force Institute of Technology

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Energy and Power Technologies
  • Weapons Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Air Force
  • Algorithms
  • Boundary Layer
  • Computational Fluid Dynamics
  • Computational Science
  • Differential Equations
  • Equations
  • Equations Of Motion
  • Euler Equations
  • Fluid Dynamics
  • Fluid Flow
  • Monte Carlo Method
  • Numerical Analysis
  • Probability
  • Probability Density Functions
  • Random Variables
  • Transonic Flow

Readers

  • Adaptive Control and Estimation with Uncertainty in Dynamic Systems.
  • Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD)
  • Control Systems Engineering.