Course Contents 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).
Study Goals Introduction to stochastic processes, spectral analysis, understanding the physics of aircraft responses to atmospheric turbulence,
derivation of equations of motion of symmetrical and asymmetrical responses to atmospheric turbulence.
