Evaluation of new actuators in a buffet loads environment

Robert W. Moses; Carol D. Wieseman; Aaron A. Bent; Alessandro E. Pizzochero

doi:10.1117/12.429653

14 June 2001 Evaluation of new actuators in a buffet loads environment

Robert W. Moses, Carol D. Wieseman, Aaron A. Bent, Alessandro E. Pizzochero

Proceedings Volume 4332, Smart Structures and Materials 2001: Industrial and Commercial Applications of Smart Structures Technologies; (2001) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.429653
Event: SPIE's 8th Annual International Symposium on Smart Structures and Materials, 2001, Newport Beach, CA, United States

Abstract

Ongoing research in buffet loads alleviation has provided an application for recently developed piezoelectric actuators capable of higher force output than previously existing actuators could provide and that can be embedded within the vehicle's structure. These new actuators, having interdigitated electrodes, promise increased performance over previous piezoelectric actuators that were tested on the fin of an F/A-18 aircraft. Two new actuators being considered by the United States Air Force to reduce buffet loads on high performance aircraft were embedded into the fins of an F/A-18 wind-tunnel model and tested in the transonic Dynamics Tunnel at the NASA Langley Research Center. The purpose of this test program, called ENABLE (Evaluation of New Actuators in a Buffet Loads Environment), was to examine the performance of the new actuators in alleviating fin buffeting, leading to a systems-level study of a fin buffet loads alleviation system architecture being considered by the USAF, Boeing, and NASA for implementation on high performance aircraft. During this wind-tunnel test, the two actuators performed superbly in alleviating fin buffeting. Peak values of the power spectral density functions for tip acceleration were reduced by as much as 85%. RMS values of tip acceleration were reduced by as much as 40% while using less than 50% of the actuator's capacity. Details of the wind-tunnel model and results of the wind- tunnel test are provided herein.

Citation Download Citation

Robert W. Moses, Carol D. Wieseman, Aaron A. Bent, and Alessandro E. Pizzochero "Evaluation of new actuators in a buffet loads environment", Proc. SPIE 4332, Smart Structures and Materials 2001: Industrial and Commercial Applications of Smart Structures Technologies, (14 June 2001); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.429653

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