Experimental nonlinear identification of an aircraft with bolted connections

Aircraft structures are known to be prone to nonlinear phenomena, especially as they constantly become lighter and hence more flexible. One specific challenge that is regularly encountered is the modeling of the mounting interfaces between aircraft subcomponents. Indeed, for large amplitudes of vibration, such interfaces may loosen and, in turn, trigger complex mechanisms such as friction and clearances. In this context, the present work intends to investigate the nonlinear dynamics of the Morane–Saulnier Paris aircraft, accessible at ONERA. This aircraft possesses multiple bolted connections between two external fuel tanks and wing tips. The objective of the paper is specifically to carry out an adequate identification of the numerous nonlinearities affecting the dynamics of this full-scale structure. Nonlinearity detection and the subsequent subspace-based parameter estimation have been performed on experimental data, collected during an on-ground test campaign. Nonlinearity detection is first achieved by the comparison of frequency response functions estimated at low excitation level, with those obtained at high amplitude level, yielding insight towards accurately characterizing the behavior of the bolted connections. Then, a nonlinear subspace identification method is applied to measured data to estimate the linear and nonlinear parameters of the structure and novel strategies and tools that overcome specific arisen problems are developed.