Aeroelastic dynamic feedback control of a Volterra airfoil

The work aims to develop a novel optimal control algorithm for integral differential equations which includes the first kind Volterra’s integral. An indirect and analytical solution of Pontryagin’s problem for Volterra equations permits to find an explicit feedback control solution here called PI(N). Numerical simulations are performed to validate the proposed algorithm with a classical test case in aerodynamic: the motion control of a moving airfoil modelled with the Wagner time-varying theory. The wings are characterized by memory effects, due to aeroelastic phenomena, which are usually difficult to incorporate in optimal control logics unless quantized numerical solvers are used, which require onerous computational efforts.