Piezoelectric aeroelastic response tailoring investigation: a status report

The NASA Langley Research Center and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have been working together to advance the state of the art in apply piezoelectric actuators to aeroelastic systems. This paper describes an experimental and analytical investigation into using piezoelectric actuators for tailoring the aeroelastic response of a five-foot span wind-tunnel model. Improvements in the flutter boundary were demonstrated as well as significant reductions in model response at dynamic pressures below flutter.