Generalized Approach for Aerodynamic Load Identification Using Optimal Spatial Distribution Estimation

Aerodynamic loads, characterized as spatiotemporally coupled excitation, are critical for aircraft design and safety assessment. A generalized identification method based on optimal spatial distribution estimation is proposed to reconstruct complex distributed dynamic loads. Specifically, modal decomposition in the frequency domain is employed to establish a reduced-order approximation, with the fast Fourier transform (FFT) and inverse FFT (IFFT) utilized to derive the distributed load in the time domain. Dominant orthogonal bases are extracted via truncated singular value decomposition (TSVD) to serve as optimal spatial distribution functions. Finally, the Green’s kernel function method (GKFM) with Tikhonov regularization is leveraged to identify the corresponding time histories from structural responses, which are superposed with the spatial bases to reconstruct the distributed dynamic load. Departing from predefined basis functions, the proposed adaptive strategy extracts optimal spatial distribution bases for accurate distributed load identification. Numerical and experimental results demonstrate its effectiveness and applicability across irregular load subregions and spatiotemporally coupled conditions.