A novel method of distributed dynamic load identification for aircraft structure considering multi-source uncertainties

A series of work for distributed dynamic load identification is investigated in this paper considering unknown-but-bounded uncertainties in the aircraft structure. To facilitate the analysis, the complicated rudder structure is simplified to a plate structure based on the robust equivalence principle of mechanical property under multi-cases of flight environments. Aiming at the plate structure, a time domain-based model for distributed dynamic load identification is established through the acceleration response measured by sensors. Among them, the spatial distributed load is approximated by Chebyshev orthogonal polynomials at each sampling time, and load boundaries can be calculated by the Taylor-expansion-based uncertain propagation analysis. As keys to improve the reliability of recognition results, the optimization process for sensor placement is constructed by the particle swarm optimization algorithm, taking the robustness evaluation index and sensor distribution index into consideration. The validity and the feasibility of the proposed methodology are demonstrated by several numerical examples, and the results reveal that designer can make a rational tradeoff choice among the cost of sensor placement and the performance of load identification in a systematic framework.