Aeroservoelastic induced drag modelling and minimization for the T-FLEX demonstrator

This work is part of the on-going EU-project FliPASED, wherein flight tests using a UAV demonstrator (T-FLEX) and a multi-disciplinary optimization (MDO) exercise involving the aeroservoelastic optimization of UAV demonstrator and commercial-scale aircraft wings are performed. In this paper, several potential flow methods have been applied to estimate induced drag of the T-FLEX aircraft, followed by solving an optimization problem to minimize it using the control surfaces on the wings. The results from this study were used in the retrofit design of a pair of manufactured wings - the number and position of the control surfaces and the wing selection. In a next step, the developed tools will form the basis for a controller that will minimize induced drag, which will be tested on the T-FLEX testbed. The developed tools and the validated results will also be used within a broader MDO task involving optimization studies on a commercial short/medium range aircraft.