High performance airfoils with laminar airflow exhibit minimum drag and maximum lift, but tend to sudden stall due to flow separation at low air speed. This requires an increased approach speed of the aircraft, resulting in less steep approaches and a higher noise exposure of the surroundings. New active vortex generators, deployed only on demand at low speed, energizing the boundary layer of air flow and reducing flow separation, can help to overcome this critical situation. Active hybrid composites, combining the actuation capability of shape memory alloys (SMA) with the possibility of tailoring the compliance of fiber reinforced polymers (FRP) on the materials level, provide an active aerodynamic system with high lightweight potential and small space requirements. Being one of the first applications of active hybrid structures from SMA and FRP we will demonstrate the potential of this new technology with an integrated system of active vortex generators for a glider. In this contribution we present - the design process, based on a FE-model and careful characterization of the actuating SMA and the composite material - manufacturing relevant aspects for reliable series production - the testing of single vortex generators in lab scale under aerodynamic load - and an overview of the whole system.
In this paper we present the development, implementation and testing of a compact system for diagnosis and control of actuators based on metallic shape memory alloys (SMA). Using NiTi-SMA, very compact, cost-effective and lightweight actuation systems can be realized. In applications where the SMA is activated by internal Joule heating or its condition is diagnosed by the self-sensing of its electrical resistance, an electrical system capable of reliably measuring very small resistance changes (< 1 ohm) without affecting the phase-state of the SMA is required. In addition, the system must offer the possibility to evaluate the nonlinear, hysteresis-afflicted behavior of the SMA and to handle this difficulty, e.g. utilizing a model-based control. This paper presents a simple compact and adaptive system based on a microcontroller that meets these requirements. Detailed functional tests were carried out with the system to establish a correlation between the change in electrical resistance in the range < 200 mOhm and the current strain state of the actuator. For this purpose, a first series of tests was performed, with the SMA wires working against a constant load. In a second tests series, the SMA wires worked against springs of different stiffness. The use of a microcontroller enables simple implementation of different control strategies. The control system for the non-linear resistance change utilizes a fuzzy logic which divides the control algorithm into three regimes. In the regime of the martensitic phase transformation a PI-controller is used. The state of actuators with an absolute electrical resistance < 1 Ohm and a resistance change < 200 mohm associated with the phase transformation can be precisely measured and controlled with an accuracy < 10 mohm. The system can be configured with little effort for different tasks and shape memory systems of different sizes. Furthermore, it is possible to implement more complex control algorithms up to model-based controllers.
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