The Cluster of Excellence SE²A - Sustainable and Energy Efficient Aviation is a DFG-funded interdisciplinary research center investigating technologies for a sustainable and eco-friendly air transport system. Scientists from engineering, economics, chemistry and biology are working on the reduction of drag, emissions and noise, life-cycle concepts for airframes, improvements in air traffic management and new technologies for energy storage and conversion. Technische Universität Braunschweig, the German Aerospace Center (DLR), Leibniz University Hannover (LUH), the Braunschweig University of Art (HBK) and the National Metrology Institute of Germany (PTB) have joined forces in this scientific undertaking. The overall project is structured into the three core research areas “Assessment of the Air Transport System”, “Flight Physics and Vehicle Systems” and “Energy Storage & Conversion”. 

The PhD candidate will investigate novel methodologies for the design and the validation of active flutter control functions and investigate the interplay between flutter control technologies and other flexible and “rigid-body” flight control functions (e.g. gust load alleviation, maneuver load alleviation, flight augmentation laws). The control design methodologies to be investigated in this framework will include approaches based on robust and modal control techniques.   The work will use a mid-range aircraft configuration which was designed and modeled during the last years in the SE²A cluster as well as the gust load alleviation controllers and control design tools already available at the DLR department Flight Dynamics and Simulation. The work is focused on the controller design and analysis, but some understanding of aeroelasticity may be required, e.g. to adapt the flexible structure such as flutter behavior occurs already at lower airspeeds.

The research group from the SE2A cluster as well as the department Flight Dynamics and Simulation, which the PhD candidate will be part of, strongly rely on the close cooperation, exchange, and support between the employees from different background and disciplines. This contributes to a particularly attractive and interesting work environment in which young scientists can thrive.