Stochastic Aerospace Systems

The course AE4304 covers ONLY the first five chapters of the lecture notes, the practical assignment AE4304P covers chapters six to eight. Chapter 9 (Etkin's 4 point model) serves as background reading.

 So, the lecture AE4304 (and its exam) covers:

 1. Introduction (aircraft do respond to atmospheric turbulence, effects on flight control system design).

 2. Scalar stochastic processes (probability theory, joint probability density functions, covariance and correlation functions, stochastic processes, ergodic processes).

3. Spectral analysis of stochastic processes in continuous time (Fourier analysis, power spectral densities, analysis of dynamic linear system responses in frequency domain).

4. Spectral analysis of stochastic processes in discrete time (discrete time Fourier transform, Fast Fourier Transform, spectral estimates-smoothing).

5. Multivariable stochastic processes (covariance function matrix and spectral density matrix, multi-variable system responses in the frequency and in the time domain).

The practical assignment AE4304P (Matlab or Python) covers:

6. Description of atmospheric turbulence (physical mechanisms, stochastic models of atmospheric turbulence, the two fundamental correlation functions, von Karman en Dryden spectra, models in the time domain).

7. Symmetric aircraft response to atmospheric turbulence (symmetrical aerodynamic forces and moments due to turbulence, gust derivatives, equations of motion of aircraft flying in symmetrical atmospheric turbulence).

8. Asymmetric aircraft response to atmospheric turbulence (elementary two-dimensional fields of turbulence, asymmetrical aerodynamic forces and moments, asymmetrical gust derivatives, equations of motion).