ZONA TECHNOLOGY, INC. (ZONA) PROPOSES TO DEVELOP AN INTEGRATED FLIGHT DYNAMICS SIMULATION CAPABILITY WITH N…

Public award description

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.