SBIR-STTR Award

This innovation describes an economical approach to improve the fatigue life of aircraft components that are subjected to dynamic load environment. Prolonged exposures to buffeting causes sever fatigue damage resulting in catastrophic failure of vertical tails of combat aircraft such as F18, F15, F22 and JSF. Consequently, multi-million dollar aircraft must be grounded for untimely expensive repairs in a critical strategic situation. Such failures can be avoided by monitoring and providing means of alleviating the severity of the dynamic loads. One effective method is to employ an active control surface modal device that generates sufficient aerodynamic damping to reduce or eliminate vibrations caused by buffeting/gust environment. A lightweight smart actuation device together with an active control system will be imbedded into a flexible rudder or a control surface. This device can be installed on new as well as existing fleet of military or commercial aircraft. These are inexpensive and easy to replace. The phase I study establishes the proof of concept and scalability of the smart actuation device for full-scale aircraft, while the Phase II will demonstrate its adaptation in flight tests. rs. POTENTIAL COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS The Actively Deformable Control Device can be used for: 1. Buffet and gust load alleviation and fatigue life enhancement of F18, F15, F22 and JSF, and commercial aircraft, 2. Suppression of aeroelastic instability (flutter) of military and civilian aircraft 3. Reduction of transonic wave drag near trailing edges in transonic cruise 4. Deicing of aircraft lifting surfaces. These actuator device can be implemented to generate high frequency vibration to break the ice on the surface of the wing and other lifting surfaces. Potential customers include aircraft manufacturers, FAA and department of defense. ATI will license the technology to the airframe manufacture