In this work, a nonlinear state-space-based identification method is proposed to describe compactly unsteady aerodynamic responses. Such a reduced-order model is trained on a series of signals that implicitly represent the relationship between the structural motion and the aerodynamic loads. The determination of the model parameters is obtained through a two-level training procedure where, in the first stage, the matrices associated to the linear part of the model are computed by a robust subspace projection technique, whereas the remaining nonlinear terms are determined by an output error-minimization procedure in the second stage. The present approach is tested on two different problems, proving the convergence toward the reference results obtained by a computational fluid dynamics solver in linear and nonlinear, aerodynamic, and aeroelastic applications, whereas the aerodynamic reduced-order models are coupled with the related structural mechanical systems, demonstrating the ability of capturing the main nonlinear features of the response. The robustness of the reduced-order model is then tested considering a series of inputs with varying amplitudes and frequencies outside the range of interest and computing aeroelastic responses with nonnull pretwist angles.
NomenclatureA a , B a , C a , D a = linear subparts of the reduced-order model b = half-chord, c∕2 E a , F a = nonlinear subparts of the reduced-order model f a = aerodynamic loads h, θ = plunge and pitch degrees of freedom k = ωc∕U ∞ ; reduced frequency N a = number of aerodynamic states, size of x a N out = number of aerodynamic output, size of f a q ∞ = 1 2 ρ ∞ U 2 ∞ ; dynamic pressure t = continuous time V = U ∞ ∕ω θ b μ p ; reduced velocity V bif = bifurcation speed x a = aerodynamic state x s = structural dynamics state β LE , β TE = leading-and trailing-edge control surface deflections μ = m∕πρ ∞ b; mass-to-fluid ratio τ = ω θ t; nondimensional time ϕx a = nonlinear functions of the aerodynamic reduced-order model ω i = natural frequency of the ith degree of freedom