Effect of Control Surface Damage and External Defects on System Flight Dynamics

One of the key aircraft system design requirements is aircraft controllability when there are defects on the outer molds or control surface of high-speed systems. In this SBIR project, we propose to develop a generalized “nonlinear fluid modal method” to rapidly predict and offer unique physical insight into the aerodynamic stability derivatives to assess the impact of these defects. In Phase I, the fully-coupled aerodynamics performance and flight dynamics problem of aircraft and missile systems will be reduced into the form of a 6 DOF Ordinary Differential Equation (ODE) flight dynamics model with embedded aerodynamic stability derivatives. We will evaluate the computational efficiency of two methods in extracting the derivatives: a) system identification procedures within a time-domain CFD solver and b) efficient vortex panel method. A geometry kernel will be developed to represent defects of different sizes and shapes and at different locations. The developed flight dynamics model will be applied to assess the impact of externally generated defects in the outer mold line or control surfaces on the overall flight stability for high-speed aircraft and missiles.