Experimental study of aeroelastic response of a flexible high aspect ratio wing with passive SMA actuators

Resumo

© 31st Congress of the International Council of the Aeronautical Sciences, ICAS 2018. All rights reserved.The search to increase aircraft performance has led to wings with higher aspect ratios. High aspect ratio wings are subjected to aeroelastic instabilities. Consequently, the use of advanced materials added to its structure might be an aeroelastic control strategy. Among the passive and active methods to control and mitigate such structural phenomena, the use of shape memory alloys (SMA) has gained space in aeronautical applications. In such context, the present research aims to analyze the flutter answer of a flexible wing with high aspect ratio with SMA wires as passive controller. First, a research model has been designed, built and tested in a wind tunnel. After being calibrated, SMA wires were installed as a dynamic actuator in such model. The flutter condition was then evaluated through monitoring aeroelastic damping effect and the frequency coupling. The results showed lower peaks of the frequency response function (FRF) for some wire configurations as their critical flutter airspeed was reached. In addition, similar reductions of the limit cycle oscillations (LCO) were also observed.