Non-linear system identification of the dynamics of aeroelastic instability suppression based on targeted energy transfers

Abstract

Abstract We revisit our earlier study of targeted energy transfer (TET) mechanisms for aeroelastic instability suppression by employing time-domain nonlinear system identification based on the equivalence between analytical and empirical slow flows. Performing multiscale partitions of the dynamics directly on measured (or simulated) time series without any presumptions regarding the type and strength of the system nonlinearity, we derive nonlinear interaction models (NIMs) as sets of intrinsic modal oscillators (IMOs). The eigenfre-quencies of IMOs are characterised by the ‘fast’ dynamics of the problem and their forcing terms represent slowly-varying nonlinear modal interactions across the different time scales of the dynamics. We demonstrate that NIMs not only provide information on modal energy exchanges under nonlinear resonant interactions, but also directly dictate robustness behaviour of TET mechanisms for suppressing aeroelastic instabilities. Finally, we discuss the usefulness of NIMs in constructing frequency-energy plots that reveal global features of the dynamics to distinguish between different TET mechanisms and to study robustness of aeroelastic instability suppression.