Determining Worst-Case Gust Loads on Aircraft Structures Using an Evolutionary Algorithm

摘要

Determining the characteristics of wind gusts that result in the critical loading of an aircraft structure is an extremely complex problem. On the other hand, identifying these “worst-case gusts” is terribly important for aircraft designers because they need to ensure that aircraft are designed to withstand the dynamic loads associated with these turbulent gusts. In this paper an evolutionary algorithm (EA) is shown to be a feasible approach to solving this problem. The EA outperforms a traditional method suitable for solving linear problems, then is extended to nonlinear problems for which there is no effective solution methodology.