Active vibration suppression of wind tunnel models using piezoelectric materials

Abstract

In times when aircraft are becoming lighter and faster, the problem areas of aeroelasticity are also growing. Thereby, one particular challenge is wing flutter. Especially at the beginning of the investigations of wings in the wind tunnel it happens again and again that expensive models were damaged. In the present time, there are various methods, such as a spring at the clamping, or the shifting of a mass, to control the flutter. The aim is to investigate how models with so-called "smart materials" can dampen themselves and thus improve measurement quality by controlling vibration amplitudes. Therefor piezoelectric materials are used as actuators and sensors. These generate a voltage under a deformation, and vice versa deform when a voltage is applied. In this work, it is tested whether the force that the piezoelectric element introduces into the system is large enough to damp the oscillations. For this purpose, the optimal position and size of the piezo element are first determined and then verified in an experiment. Furthermore, a controller is designed, which controls the piezo elements and finally damps a fluttering model in the wind tunnel. With the results and experiences of the master thesis, a complex wing model with several piezo elements can be manufactured in a next step. Thereby, a self-learning artificial intelligence will control and dampen the vibration amplitudes.