Design of a Bidirectional Piezoelectric Actuator for Blade Trailing-Edge Flap

摘要

The present research investigates the feasibility of a compact piezoelectric actuator mechanism to oscillate the rotorblade trailing-edge flap for active vibration suppression. The main components of the actuator are two piezostack segments and a dual-stage stroke amplifier. Each piezostack segment is fabricated by bonding five identical piezostacks. A bidirectional double-lever amplification concept is developed, that involves an extended dual-stage lever-fulcrum stroke amplifier and two parallel rows of piezostacks. Both design and fabrication of the trailing-edge flap actuator are addressed. The designed actuator is of size 8-inch length (spanwise), 1.25-inch width (chordwise), 0.75-inch height, and the weight of the prototype is 1.05 lbs. The bench-top test showed 94 % of ideal displacement output. To validate the feasibility of the designed actuator, the spin test in the vacuum chamber is planned to evaluate the performance in rotating environment up to 700g of centrifugal loading.