Design and wind tunnel test of an actively controlled flexible wing

Abstract

The reduction of flight loads has the potential to reduce structural mass in wing design and to improve passenger comfort. In the DLR project KonTeKst, an actively controlled wing was designed, manufactured and tested in a wind tunnel experiment. The motivation of the activity was to validate methods for the design of combined passive and active load alleviation techniques, including aeroelastic tailoring and active load control. In addition, the experimental activities provided an opportunity to improve and validate modal identification techniques. The wind tunnel model is a flexible composite wing of 1.6 meter (half-) span, with three flaps used for load control. The control design uses H2 optimal blending techniques for input and output. The control strategy is capable of accounting for failure of one flap without critically losing performance. The wind tunnel experiment was performed in a wind tunnel with a maximum speed of 50 m/s. The paper will give an overview of the numerical design activities for wing and load control, of wing design and manufacturing, including the selection and installation of sensors and actuators, and of the wind tunnel set up including the actuation of the wing, data acquisition and online analysis, as well as selected results.