A wind tunnel tested control system for a morphing wing actuation mechanism

Author(s):  
Michel Joël Tchatchueng Kammegne ◽  
Ruxandra M. Botez ◽  
Lucian Grigorie ◽  
Mahmoud Mamou ◽  
Youssef Mebarki
2019 ◽  
Vol 124 (1271) ◽  
pp. 55-75 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. Khan ◽  
T. L. Grigorie ◽  
R. M. Botez ◽  
M. Mamou ◽  
Y. Mébarki

AbstractThe paper presents the design and experimental testing of the control system used in a new morphing wing application with a full-scaled portion of a real wing. The morphing actuation system uses four similar miniature brushless DC (BLDC) motors placed inside the wing, which execute a direct actuation of the flexible upper surface of the wing made from composite materials. The control system of each actuator uses three control loops (current, speed and position) characterised by five control gains. To tune the control gains, the Particle Swarm Optimisation (PSO) method is used. The application of the PSO method supposed the development of a MATLAB/Simulink® software model for the controlled actuator, which worked together with a software sub-routine implementing the PSO algorithm to find the best values for the five control gains that minimise the cost function. Once the best values of the control gains are established, the software model of the controlled actuator is numerically simulated in order to evaluate the quality of the obtained control system. Finally, the designed control system is experimentally validated in bench tests and wind-tunnel tests for all four miniature actuators integrated in the morphing wing experimental model. The wind-tunnel testing treats the system as a whole and includes, besides the evaluation of the controlled actuation system, the testing of the integrated morphing wing experimental model and the evaluation of the aerodynamic benefits brought by the morphing technology on this project. From this last perspective, the airflow on the morphing upper surface of the experimental model is monitored by using various techniques based on pressure data collection with Kulite pressure sensors or on infrared thermography camera visualisations.


Actuators ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (6) ◽  
pp. 107
Author(s):  
Nakash Nazeer ◽  
Xuerui Wang ◽  
Roger M. Groves

This paper presents a study on trailing edge deflection estimation for the SmartX camber morphing wing demonstrator. This demonstrator integrates the technologies of smart sensing, smart actuation and smart controls using a six module distributed morphing concept. The morphing sequence is brought about by two actuators present at both ends of each of the morphing modules. The deflection estimation is carried out by interrogating optical fibers that are bonded on to the wing’s inner surface. A novel application is demonstrated using this method that utilizes the least amount of sensors for load monitoring purposes. The fiber optic sensor data is used to measure the deflections of the modules in the wind tunnel using a multi-modal fiber optic sensing approach and is compared to the deflections estimated by the actuators. Each module is probed by single-mode optical fibers that contain just four grating sensors and consider both bending and torsional deformations. The fiber optic method in this work combines the principles of hybrid interferometry and FBG spectral sensing. The analysis involves an initial calibration procedure outside the wind tunnel followed by experimental testing in the wind tunnel. This method is shown to experimentally achieve an accuracy of 2.8 mm deflection with an error of 9%. The error sources, including actuator dynamics, random errors, and nonlinear mechanical backlash, are identified and discussed.


2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. Yu. Fedrushkov ◽  
A. S. Ponomaryov ◽  
A. G. Yereza ◽  
Ye. A. Myasnikov ◽  
O. V. Shevchenko

Author(s):  
Brandon Liberi ◽  
Chau Ton ◽  
Narayanan Komerath

Given the innumerable combinations of flight vehicles, loads and flight conditions, alternatives are sought to flight testing, to certify the safe flight speed with slung loads. With well-resolved airload maps now feasible for arbitrary shapes as analytical functions, dynamic simulation predicts divergence speeds, regardless of the symmetry of the object. Likely modes of amplification are found using wind tunnel experiments with free-swinging objects. A robust control formulation enables safe flight close to divergence speed where the flight control system can prevent disturbance amplification.


2000 ◽  
Author(s):  
Steve Tung ◽  
Brant Maines ◽  
Fukang Jiang ◽  
Tom Tsao

Abstract A MEMS-based active system is currently under development for flow separation control in the transonic regime. The system consists of micro shear stress sensors for flow sensing and micro balloon actuators for separation control. We have successfully completed the first phase of the program in which the micro sensors and actuators were fabricated and tested in a wind tunnel facility. In the test, the sensors and actuators were flush mounted on a 3D model, which is representative of the upper surface of a wing with a deflected trailing edge flap. The model was installed in the wind tunnel and tested at a series of Mach numbers between 0.2 and 0.6. For all Mach numbers, the sensor output indicates that flow separates over the trailing edge when the micro balloons are in the ‘down’ position. When the micro balloons are inflated, the shear stress level on the trailing edge increases substantially, indicating an improvement of the separation characteristics. This result demonstrates the feasibility of using MEMS sensors and actuators to control flow separation. It is the first step toward the development of a revolutionary closed loop flow control system applicable to existing and future aircraft to enhance aerodynamic performance.


2020 ◽  
Vol 2020 ◽  
pp. 1-15
Author(s):  
Yi Yu ◽  
Xing Shen ◽  
Yun Huang

In wind tunnel tests, the cantilever sting is usually used to support aircraft models because of its simple structure and low aerodynamic interference. However, in some special conditions, big-amplitude and low-frequency vibration would occur easily on the model not only in the pitch direction but also in the yaw direction, resulting in inaccurate data and even damage of the supporting structure. In this paper, aiming at suppressing the vibration in pitch and yaw plane, a multidimensional system identification and active vibration control system on the basis of piezoelectric actuators is established. A vibration monitoring method based on the strain-displacement transformation (SDT) matrix is proposed, which can transform strain signals into vibration displacements. The system identification based on chirp-Z transform (CZT) is applied to improve the adaptability and precision of the building process for the system model. After that, the hardware platform as well as the software control system based on the classical proportional-derivative (PD) algorithm is built. A series of experiments are carried out, and the results show the exactness of the vibration monitoring method. The system identification process is completed, and the controller is designed. Vibration control experiments verify the effectiveness of the controller, and the results indicate that vibrations in pitch and yaw directions are attenuated apparently. The spectrum power is reduced over 14.8 dB/Hz, which prove that the multidimensional identification and active vibration control system has the capability to decline vibration from different directions.


2019 ◽  
Vol 32 (9) ◽  
pp. 2109-2120 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wei LIU ◽  
Mengde ZHOU ◽  
Zhengquan WEN ◽  
Zhuang YAO ◽  
Yu LIU ◽  
...  

Author(s):  
Min Huang ◽  
Zhong-wei Wang ◽  
Zhen-yun Guo ◽  
Yao-bin Niu

In order to provide a method for evaluating flight control systems with the wind tunnel based virtual flight testing and provide a guide for building virtual flight testing systems, the virtual flight testing evaluation method was researched. The virtual flight testing evaluation method consisted of three parts: virtual flight testing method, virtual flight testing data processing method, and flight control system performance determination method, which were respectively designed for a pitching control system. Then, the hardware-in-the-loop simulation evaluation method was presented, and comparisons between the virtual flight testing and hardware-in-the-loop simulation evaluation method were conducted to highlight the characteristics of virtual flight testing evaluation method. Finally, virtual flight testing simulation models of a sample air vehicle were built and virtual flight testing were simulated to demonstrate the virtual flight testing evaluation method, which is helpful for the understanding of the virtual flight testing evaluation method with more sensibility. The evaluation results show that the virtual flight testing evaluation method designed can be used for flight control system evaluation.


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