Large deformation modeling of wing-like structures based on support vector regression

Abstract

Large flexible aircrafts produce large deformation during flight, leading to obvious geometric nonlinearities. Large deformation modeling is essential for modern aircraft design. Calculation of large deformation based on a full-order model often carries an unbearable computing burden. The reduced-order model (ROM) can be efficient in calculation but requires lots of test datasets. This study investigates support vector regression (SVR) to build a regression model to calculate the static large deformation of wing-like structures. The correlation coefficient (R) and root mean square error (RMSE) are used to evaluate the performance of the regression models. In contrast to the ROM that has been proposed, the regression model based on SVR requires far fewer training cases, with almost the same accuracy in this research. Meanwhile, comparison with another prediction model built based on random forest regression (RFR) has also been reported. The results reveal that the SVR algorithm has better accuracy on this issue. Finally, ground test results of a real large flexible wing model show that the regression model proposed here reaches a good agreement with measurement data under applied load. This work illustrates that the machine learning algorithm is an efficient and accurate way to predict large deformation of aircrafts.