Fuzzy control of the flow over an aerofoil

Abstract

The often non-linear dynamics within the field of sound and vibrations put demanding requirements on a control system’s capabilities. The success of fuzzy logic applied to control problems in other fields has called for an investigation of its performance in sound and vibrations. Research into the active control of systems using properties of higher order than the instantaneous time-history of the incoming signal is of great interest in many areas.

Firstly, a comparison of the active control of the variance of a randomly driven state-space system using a simple rule based and the optimal control strategy has been performed. Secondly, a fuzzy system controlling the flow over a wing profile by using suction pumps has been developed. The controlled variable of the system consisted of the root mean square pressures at points on the aerofoil. A model of the physical plant resulting from previous work was used in computer simulations to acquire the correct set of fuzzy rules.

The fuzzy control system was tested in experiments in a wind tunnel and compared to the performance of a gradient descent controller. The fuzzy controller proved capable of successful handling of the non-linearities of the system within the simulations as well as in the experiments.

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