Full-field strain reconstruction of BWB aircraft structures using mode superposition-based virtual sensing

Mincheol Shin , Sungbo Lee , Seongpil Cho

Abstract

The ability to accurately estimate structural responses is essential for ensuring safety and enabling early damage detection in complex engineering systems. However, obtaining full-field structural state data is often hindered by the physical limitations of sensor installation in extreme operational environments and the scarcity of failure data required for data-driven approaches. To address these challenges, this paper proposes a physics-based virtual sensing technique that reconstructs the full-field strain distribution using a sparse array of strain sensors. The proposed method utilizes the mode superposition principle, approximating the global structural response as a linear combination of modal weights derived from limited sensor data. A key feature of this approach is the construction of a hybrid basis set that integrates dominant low-order eigenmodes with quasi-static correction vectors, ensuring that both dynamic characteristics and static aeroelastic deformations are accurately captured with high computational efficiency. The method is applied to a blended wing body (BWB) aircraft structure, and its performance is verified through numerical simulations under various cruise conditions with elliptical lift distributions. The analysis results show that the proposed technique effectively estimates the strain field over the entire structure. Relative errors are mostly within 10% compared to the finite element analysis reference value. In addition, the error is less than 4% in the major deformation area, showing high precision. These findings confirm the potential of the proposed virtual sensing framework as a robust and efficient solution for real-time structural health monitoring in aerospace applications.

Key Words

blended wing body; finite element analysis; full-field strain reconstruction; mode superposition method; virtual sensing

Address

Mincheol Shin — Department of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering, Korea Aerospace University, 76 Hanggongdaehak-ro, Deogyang-gu, Goyang, Gyeonggi 10540, Republic of Korea
Sungbo Lee — Gen-IV Reactor Technology Development Division, Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute, 111 Daedeok-daero, 989beon-gil, Yuseong-gu, Daejeon 34057, Republic of Korea
Seongpil Cho — Department of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering, Korea Aerospace University, 76 Hanggongdaehak-ro, Deogyang-gu, Goyang, Gyeonggi 10540, Republic of Korea

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