Picture of Dr. Weihua Su

Departmental Undergraduate Program Director, Associate Professor

Aerospace Engineering and Mechanics

213 Hardaway
 (205) 348-6728
 (205) 348-6959
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Education

  • Ph.D., Aerospace Engineering, University of Michigan, 2008
  • M.S., Aerospace Engineering, Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, China, 2002
  • B.S., Aerospace Engineering, Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, China, 2000

Biography

Dr. Weihua Su is an associate professor at The University of Alabama and director of the Aeroelasticity and Structural Dynamics Research Laboratory.

Su is an elected member of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, or AIAA, Structural Dynamics Technical Committee. He is also an elected member of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, or ASME, Aerospace Division Structures and Materials Technical Committee. Prior to joining the faculty of UA, Su worked as an engineer at Tenneco Inc. and as a research fellow at the University of Michigan.

He has extensive experience in finite element modeling, aeroelasticity, structural dynamics, and structure optimization. Su’s research interests include aeroelasticity, flight dynamics, and control of flexible aircraft. Recently, he has focused on nonlinear aeroelasticity and control synthesis of flexible mission-adaptive aircraft, with adaptive and multifunctional structures and sensing technologies. He is also engaged in the design and analysis of novel Urban Air Mobility, or UAM, vehicles.

Su’s work was recognized by the ASME/Boeing Structures and Materials Award in 2011. His research has been funded by NASA Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate, or ARMD, NASA Ames Research Center and NASA Kennedy Space Center, as well as companies from aerospace and automotive industries.

Honors and Awards

  • ASME/Boeing Structures and Materials Award, ASME/Boeing, 2011
  • NASA Group Achievement Award, NASA, 2018

Areas of Research

Latest Publications

  • Su, W., “Development of an Aeroelastic Formulation for Deformable Airfoils Using Orthogonal Polynomials,” AIAA Journal55(8), pp. 2793-2807, 2017. (doi: 10.2514/1.J055665)
  • Hammerton, J. R., Su, W., Zhu, G., and Swei, S. S.-M., “Optimum Distributed Wing Shaping and Control Loads for Highly Flexible Aircraft,” Aerospace Science and Technology79, pp. 255-265, 2018. (doi: 10.1016/j.ast.2018.05.045)
  • Tsushima, N., and Su, W., “A Study on Adaptive Vibration Control and Energy Conversion of Highly Flexible Multifunctional Wings,” Aerospace Science and Technology79, pp. 297-309, (2018). (doi: 10.1016/j.ast.2018.05.056)
  • He, T., Zhu, G., Swei, S. S.-M., and Su, W., “Smooth-Switching LPV Control for Vibration Suppression of a Flexible Airplane Wing,” Aerospace Science and Technology84, pp. 895-903, 2019. (doi: 10.1016/j.ast.2018.11.029)
  • Hang, X., Fei, Q., and Su, W., “On Tracking Aeroelastic Modes in Stability Analysis Using Left and Right Eigenvectors,” AIAA Journal, in press. (doi: 10.2514/1.J057297)