Aeroelastic behavior of a composite plate-like wing under piezoelectrically induced stresses

Abstract

Recent aircraft are increasingly presenting unconventional wing configurations, resulting in unusual aeroelastic responses and consequently giving rise to different technological strategies to enhance aeroelastic stability. Among them, the technique of stress stiffening by piezoelectric actuation emerged as a promising technological solution to improve the aeroelastic stability of structures with both ends axially constrained. Therefore, an aeroelastic model employing smart composite beam elements and time domain aerodynamic loads with strip theory for stress stiffening aeroelastic problems was developed and carefully validated. In addition, the effect of bending-torsion coupling provided by concentrated masses on the aeroelastic response of the structure is also taken into account, which was included by the presence of a slender ballast arbitrarily positioned along the span and chord. Parametric studies were performed investigating the influence of aspect ratio, fiber orientation angle, ballast position, as well as piezoelectric unit position along the span and its input voltage. Results showed a promising performance of such technique, as it could increase the bandwidth of two flexible modes associated with the flutter mechanism.