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

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.