Shape control of structures with semi-definite stiffness matrices for adaptive wings

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
Maintaining an optimum-wing cross section during transonic cruise can dramatically reduce the shock-induced drag and can result in significant fuel savings and increased range. Our adaptive-wing concept employs actuators as truss elements of active ribs to reshape the wing cross section by deforming the structure. In our previous work, to derive the shape control- system gain matrix, we developed a procedure that requires the inverse of the stiffness matrix of the structure without the actuators. However, this method cannot be applied to designs where the actuators are required structural elements since the stiffness matrices are singular when the actuator are removed. Consequently, a new method was developed, where the order of the problem is reduced and only the inverse of a small nonsingular partition of the stiffness matrix is required to obtain the desired gain matrix. The procedure was experimentally validated by achieving desired shapes of a physical model of an aircraft-wing rib. The theory and test results are presented.

This publication has 0 references indexed in Scilit: