Real-Time Dynamic Substructuring for Aerospace Applications
by
Meriem Allouache
Department of Aerospace Engineering and Department of Mechanical Engineering. Bristol University, Queens Building, University Walk, Bristol BS8 1TR, U.K
Coauthors: David J. Wagg and Mark Lowenberg

Real-time substructuring is a novel hybrid method for the dynamic testing of complex engineering structures. The structure of interest is divided into two substructures: a ‘critical’ part for which physical testing is considered necessary (e.g. due to nonlinearities that render numerical modelling uncertain) and the remainder of the structure, often linear modelled numerically. The physical substructure must reliably interact with the numerical counterpart via sensors and actuators and the tests must be run in real-time. The dynamics of the two substructures as well as their reciprocal interactions must be accurately reproduced in order to emulate the dynamic behaviour of the complete original structure. A project at Bristol University aims to apply this technique to an aircraft wing with complex wing-tip mechanisms. The outboard wing, including the wing-tip, is to be tested physically in a low speed wind tunnel while the rest is modelled numerically. The unique aspect of this hybrid test is a two-stage substructuring: structural as well as aerodynamic substructuring. This paper will focus on the essence of this technique; control strategies involving delay compensation and synchronization theory on a multi-axis experimental rig commissioned specifically for real-time substructuring.

Date received: March 28, 2008

Copyright © 2008 by the author(s). The author(s) of this document and the organizers of the conference have granted their consent to include this abstract in Atlas Conferences Inc. Document # cawz-98.