AEROSERVOELASTIC ASPECTS OF WING CONTROL SURFACE PLANFORM SHAPE OPTIMIZATION

Equivalent plate structural modeling and doublet point lifting surface unsteady aerodynamics are used to obtain analytic sensitivities of aeroelastic and aeroservoelastic response with respect to wing and control surface planform shape parameters. Rational function approximations for unsteady aerodynamic forces, their shape sensitivities, and the resulting linear time invariant state space models of aeroservoelastic systems and their shape sensitivities are examined. The goal is to develop effective and numerically efficient approximation techniques for wing shape optimization for use with nonlinear programming and approximation concepts as a multidisciplinary optimization strategy. Effects of structural and unsteady aerodynamic modeling errors are studied. Examination of approximation accuracy using alternative approximation techniques (and the resulting move limits) provide insight and experience on the way to realistic wing/control surface shape optimization with active controls and aeroservoelastic constraints.