A Disturbance-Rejection Problem for a 2-D Airfoil Exhibiting Flutter

Abstract

Flutter suppression is a problem of considerable interest in modern avionics. Flutter is a vibration caused by energy in the airstream being absorbed by a non-rigid wing. Active control is one possible method of suppressing flutter. However, due to unmeasurable aerodynamic-lag states, developing an active control using full-state feedback is not viable. The use of a state-estimator is a more practical way of developing active controllers. In this paper we investigate two control methods using state-estimators. We also use simple models of disturbances to test attenuation and robustness of each control method. Finally, a method of quantitative robust analysis is reviewed and then applied to each of the controlled systems.