Assistant Professor, Aaron Towne, has received a Young Investigator Program (YIP) Award from the U.S. Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR). Towne’s work is titled, “Resolvent-based Estimation for Control of Turbulent Aerodynamic Flows.” The AFOSR’s mission is to support Air Force goals of control and maximum utilization of air, space, and cyberspace. Towne’s research looks into developing an improved framework for obtaining real-time estimates of turbulent aerodynamic flow fields. To do this, his team will improve upon existing state estimation methods by leveraging the existence of organized motions within the flow called coherent structures.
Towne said, “The final outcome of this project will be a new flow estimation framework, validated and optimized to predict aerodynamic flow behavior from limited, physically realizable measurements. This capability would help the Air Force maintain its technological superiority by enabling aerodynamic performance enhancements such as increased maneuverability, reduced drag, and improved safety.”
This technology could enable improved flight control by providing the ability for an aircraft to detect its surrounding flow environment using sensors on the surface of the aircraft, allowing prediction of future unsteady aerodynamic loads.
The AFOSR received 220 proposals for the YIP and forty were awarded. Learn more about this year’s winners.