Biomimetic FAA-certifiable, artificial muscle structures for commercial aircraft wings
| Autor: | Ron Barrett, Cassandra M Barrett |
|---|---|
| Rok vydání: | 2014 |
| Předmět: |
Engineering
Sensitive-plant biology Structural mechanics business.industry Stiffness Mechanical engineering Ride quality Condensed Matter Physics biology.organism_classification Atomic and Molecular Physics and Optics Mechanics of Materials Control theory Signal Processing medicine Venus flytrap General Materials Science Artificial muscle Electrical and Electronic Engineering medicine.symptom Pneumatic flow control business Actuator Civil and Structural Engineering |
| Zdroj: | Smart Materials and Structures. 23:074011 |
| ISSN: | 1361-665X 0964-1726 |
| DOI: | 10.1088/0964-1726/23/7/074011 |
| Popis: | This paper is centered on a new form of adaptive material which functions much in the same way as skeletal muscle tissue, is structurally modeled on plant actuator cells and capable of rapidly expanding or shrinking by as much as an order of magnitude in prescribed directions. Rapid changes of plant cell shape and sizes are often initiated via ion-transport driven fluid migration and resulting turgor pressure variation. Certain plant cellular structures like those in Mimosa pudica (sensitive plant), Albizia julibrissin (Mimosa tree), or Dionaea muscipula (Venus Flytrap) all exhibit actuation physiology which employs such turgor pressure manipulation. The paper begins with dynamic micrographs of a sectioned basal articulation joint from A. julibrissin. These figures show large cellular dimensional changes as the structure undergoes foliage articulation. By mimicking such structures in aircraft flight control mechanisms, extremely lightweight pneumatic control surface actuators can be designed. This paper shows several fundamental layouts of such surfaces with actuator elements made exclusively from FAA-certifiable materials, summarizes their structural mechanics and shows actuator power and energy densities that are higher than nearly all classes of conventional adaptive materials available today. A sample flap structure is shown to possess the ability to change its shape and structural stiffness as its cell pressures are manipulated, which in turn changes the surface lift-curve slope when exposed to airflows. Because the structural stiffness can be altered, it is also shown that the commanded section lift-curve slope can be similarly controlled between 1.2 and 6.2 rad−1. Several aircraft weight reduction principles are also shown to come into play as the need to concentrate loads to pass through point actuators is eliminated. The paper concludes with a summary of interrelated performance and airframe-level improvements including enhanced gust rejection, load alleviation, ride quality, fatigue life and flight safety. |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
| Externí odkaz: |
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