The application of actuator made of piezoelectric material, particularly the advanced piezoelectric fiber composite due to the rapid development of smart materials and structures and active control technology in aviation and aerospace industry, to aircraft for performance enhancements such as flight control, aerodynamic force optimization, structure weight reduction, and overall aircraft design represents a new challenge to researches. It is considered as one of the key technologies for developing future flight vehicle. An approach with virtual control surface instead of conventional control surface to control aerodynamic force distribution and flight performance by use of piezoelectric fiber composite actuators distributed on wing surface is presented here. Particularly, the design and implementation of increasing lift force, providing roll maneuver, decreasing induced drag and wing root moment in different flight environments by the same structure control platform are studied. The control effect and sensitivity are examined quantitatively. Generally speaking, better control effect can be obtained by making better use of aeroelastic character to enlarge the actuation strain produced by piezoelectric material. piezoelectric actuator, piezoelectric fiber composite, shape control, aerodynamic characteristics, morphing wing Citation:Li M, Yuan J X, Guan D, et al. Application of piezoelectric fiber composite actuator to aircraft wing for aerodynamic performance improvement. Sci

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This paper discusses the design, manufacture and wind tunnel test of a full aircraft structure similar transonic flutter model in the wind tunnel FL-26. It introduces the mechanics hypothesis, use of materials, and design methods of this model design, in which it uses a technology of dynamic finite element model’s flexibility-mode collaborative correction. In the process of the model, it adopts glass fiber, carbon fiber reinforced plastic and foam for manufacturing of dynamics similar model. After simulation calculation of the model, transonic flutter wind tunnel test of the model is finally accomplished in the wind tunnel FL-26.

Changing the shape of an airfoil to enhance overall aircraft performance has always been a goal of aircraft designers. Using smart material to reshape the wing can improve aerodynamic performance. The influence of anisotropic effects of piezoelectric actuators on the aerodynamic characteristics of a simplified HALE wing model was investigated. Test verification was conducted.piezoelectric actuator, aerodynamic performance, anisotropicDuring the past decade, many researchers have also started to look at adaptive material actuator systems for performance-enhancing shape control. Smart material based actuation systems are attractive because of their characteristics of high-energy densities and because shaping accomplished by smart material can be smooth and without flow disturbing. Using piezoelectric (PZT) patches to reshape the wing can improve aerodynamic performance such as divergence [1] , flutter [2] and rolling maneuver [3,4] . Studies have shown that a network of sensors and actuators could be used to control the structure and improve the flight performance of air vehicles. NASA and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency in the US have adopted the term of "morphing aircraft" to describe the application of adaptive structures, among other technologies, for this purpose.Some reports [5,6] about the roll control of aircraft by piezoelectric fiber composites were published recently. Based on the previous work using distributed isotropic piezoelectric actuators [7,8] to improve wing aerodynamic characteristics, the authors analyzed anisotropic effects by properly spacing thin piezoelectric strips and showed their influence on the wing aerodynamic characteristics.