Application of piezoelectric fiber composite actuator to aircraft wing for aerodynamic performance improvement

Abstract

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

Modeling mechanical behavior of distributed piezoelectric actuators for morphing wing applications

“…Wang et al (2017) studied the feedforward trajectory tracking control of torsional deformation of wings by using macroscopic fiber composite materials laid antisymmetric Modeling mechanical behavior on the upper and lower wings to provide driving torque. Li et al (2011) used piezoelectric fiber complex actuator distributed on the wing surface to control the aerodynamic force distribution and flight performance of the wing, and studied the flight performance under different flight environments. Zhang et al (2019) proposed a flight control method for a small unmanned aerial vehicle.…”

Polarization Parameters and Scaling Matter—How Processing Environment and Shape Factor Influence Electroactive Nanocomposite Characteristics

“…Piezoelectric and dielectric materials are ubiquitously used as sensors, actuators and transducers over a wide range of applications including but not limited to process control [1,2], industrial and automotive monitoring systems [3][4][5], medical diagnostics [6,7], aviation and aerospace structural health monitoring [8,9], embedded passive devices [10,11], and resonators and filters in telecommunications [12]. The brittle nature of homogenous ceramic piezoelectric materials limits their operational strains (~0.2% for homogenous lead zirconate titanate, PZT) [13], cycle life, and formability into complex shapes and structures [14].…”

Piezoelectric and Dielectric Characterization of MWCNT-Based Nanocomposite Flexible Films

“…Piezoelectric materials are used as sensors, actuators, and transducers for many applications such as quality assurance [1,2], process control [3][4][5], industrial and automotive systems [6][7][8][9], medical diagnostics [10,11], aviation and structural health monitoring [12][13][14][15], biologically engineered scaffolds [16], and embedded passive devices in consumer electronics [17][18][19]. However, the brittle nature of homogenous ceramic piezoelectric materials limits their operational strains (~8 × 10 −6 to 6 × 10 −4 ) [20][21][22], cycle life when subjected to high strain/deformation conditions [23], and ability to be formed into synclastic and complex forms.…”