Wing box transonic-flutter suppression using piezoelectric self-sensing diagonal-link actuators

The main objective of this research is to study the capability of Piezoelectric (PE) self-sensing actuators to suppress the transonic wing-box flutter, which is a flow-structure interaction phenomenon. The unsteady general frequency modified Transonic Small Disturbance (TSD) equation is used to model the transonic flow about the wing. The wing-box structure and the piezoelectric actuators are modeled using the equivalent plate method, which is based on the first-order shear deformation plate theory (FSDPT). The piezoelectric actuators are used as diagonal-links. The optimal electromechanical-coupling conditions between the piezoelectric actuators and the wing are collected from previous work. Three main different control strategies; Linear Quadratic Gaussian (LQG) which combines the Linear Quadratic Regulator (LQR) with the Kalman Filter Estimator (KFE), Optimal Static Output Feedback (SOF), and Classic Feedback Controller (CFC); are studied and compared. The optimum actuators and sensors locations are determined using the Norm of Feedback Control Gains (NFCG) and Norm of Kalman Filter Estimator Gains (NKFEG), respectively. A genetic algorithm (GA) optimization technique is used to calculate the controller and estimator parameters to achieve a target response.