Flight Mechanics, Flight Control and Aeroelasticity

Rigid Body and Structural Dynamics Measurement System for Flexible Aircraft

Environmental and commercial requirements have influenced the development of more efficient aircraft. One way to achieve this increase in aerodynamic efficiency is through high-aspect wings, leading to reduction in fuel consumption and carbon emission. As a consequence of attending the structural design requirements, the resultant wings are highly flexible.

The increase in flexibility affects the performance and flight dynamics. Therefore, flexible aircraft’s structural dynamics measurement systems are mandatory to gather this information. TU-Berlin designed the TU-Flex, a flexible testbed with a configuration that allows drawing relevant conclusions to a new generation of more efficient aircraft. The TU-Flex will have wings with different levels of flexibility.

The objective of this thesis is to design and electrical system capable of accomplishing the TU-Flex’s mission, in addition to implementing and testing a Rigid-Body and Structural Dynamics Measurement System (RBSDMS) for a flexible aircraft.

The system comprises Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU), incorporated in the wings and one Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) sensor at the aircraft’s center of gravity. In addition, a pair of STM32 micro-controllers will receive the sensor’s output and transmit to a Raspberry-Pi, which is responsible for storing the experimental data. The RBSDMS is shown in Fig. 1.

To validate the system and to evaluate the robustness of the software and hardware, the RBSDMS will be installed on a flexible structure. This flexible structure will be held in the air by flexible strings. A Ground Vibration Test (GVT) will be conducted to measure vibration modes and natural frequencies. The measurements will be validated by comparing the RBSDMS’s measurements with the laboratory sensors measurements to conclude the setup evaluation.