Abstract
Piezoelectric macro-fiber composite (MFC) structures have been used to develop oscillating winglets for active control of wing-tip vortices. A MFC structure was embedded inside a wing-section to oscillate the winglet at its free end. The goal is to weaken the potentially harmful tip vortices by introducing controlled instabilities through both spatial and temporal perturbations produced by an oscillating winglet. In the present study we have characterized MFC actuated winglets under different input excitation and pressure loading conditions. It consisted of bench-top experiments to characterize the structural resonance, with and without point pressure loading and wind tunnel tests involving distributed pressure loading. Surface pressure measurements were carried out at three spanwise locations to measure the effect of oscillating winglet on the pressure distributions on the wing surface. MFC actuated winglets show bimodal resonance behavior and the modes of oscillations are independent of magnitude of input excitation and the pressure loading.
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