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Active Control of a hybrid actuation system for aircraft vertical fin buffet load alleviation

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 February 2016

Y. Chen ,
V. Wickramasinghe  and
D. Zimcik
Y. Chen
Affiliation:
Institute for Aerospace Research, National Research Council of Canada Ottawa, Canada
V. Wickramasinghe
Affiliation:
Institute for Aerospace Research, National Research Council of Canada Ottawa, Canada
D. Zimcik
Affiliation:
Institute for Aerospace Research, National Research Council of Canada Ottawa, Canada
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Abstract

Twin-tail fighter aircraft may experience intense buffet loads when flying at high angles of attack. One such aircraft is the F/A-18 where the broadband buffet loads primarily excite the first bending and torsional modes of the vertical fin, resulting in significant vibration and dynamic stresses on the vertical tail structure. This buffet phenomenon reduces the fatigue life of the aircraft structure while decreasing mission availability.

An international technical co-operation program was initiated to develop a novel hybrid actuation system to actively alleviate the buffet response of a full-scale F/A-18 vertical fin. A hydraulic rudder actuator was used to control the bending mode of the vertical fin using rudder inertia forces. Multiple macro fiber composite actuators were distributed optimally to provide maximum induced strain control authority for the torsional mode. In order to develop an effective control law, a system identification approach was conducted to obtain a state-space model of the vertical fin using open-loop test data. An LQG control law was selected to minimise the dynamic response of the vertical fin at critical locations. The effectiveness of the control law was verified through extensive simulation prior to closed-loop experiments. The LQG control law demonstrated high robustness in all excitation load conditions; both bending and torsional vibration modes of the vertical tail were suppressed effectively and simultaneously. The dynamic stress and acceleration response at critical locations were also reduced significantly. A closed-loop experiment was conducted on a full-scale F/A-18 empennage using the IFOSTP test rig, and the experimental results verified the effectiveness of the control law development methodology used for the full-scale hybrid buffet load system for the F/A-18 aircraft. In addition, the ground vibration test demonstrated that the hybrid actuation system is a feasible solution to alleviate the vertical tail buffet loads in high performance fighter aircraft.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Aeronautical Journal , Volume 110 , Issue 1107 , May 2006 , pp. 315 - 326
Copyright
Copyright © Royal Aeronautical Society 2006 

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